LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



f 



Chap. _£XJLUU 

Metf ..____'W_]_7 . 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



% 






GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY, 



SHOWING THE 



ABSURDITIES OF INFIDELITY, 



AND THE 



HARMONY OF THE GOSPEL 

With Science and -Mistof^y, 



•♦ ■ » » 



BY ELDER J. H. WARD. 




ILLUSTKATED WITH ^TMiffi^mSS^ENGKAYINGS, 



salt lake city, utah: 

Published at the Juvenile Instructor Office. 

1884. 






Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1884, by J. H. Ward, in the 
office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



PREFACE. 



SECTARIANS generally dread meeting a "Mormon" Elder 
in discussion, for they well know the humiliating defeat 
which has been the result to their compeers in hundreds of 
instances. 

But there is another class of persons who often bring 
formidable-looking arguments against the truths of the gospel. 
This class is composed frequently of persons of considerable 
learning, research and intelligence. They have long ago become 
disgusted with the absurdities of so-called Christianity ; and 
are not slow in showing the disagreement of sectarian dogmas 
with the teachings of the Bible, or contrasting the Bible with 
supposed science. In some instances,, otherwise valuable 
scientific works are marred by sneers at the books of inspira- 
tion. In this age of earnest thought and research into all 
branches of knowledge, many of these works fall into the hands 
of the young and hence the growth of skepticism in the minds 
of many. Many of the facts contained in this work have been 
collected from, and references made to larger works not easily 
accessible to the general reader. A large number of the illus- 
trations have been designed expressly for this work, and 
engraved by Brother John Held, of Salt Lake City. 

To gather into a small compass the leading arguments of 
infidel writers, and to refute them by well-known facts ; to 
show the cause of the conflict between science and religion ; 
and to harmonize true science with the teachings of God's 
word, has been the design in writing this little work. That in 
its perusal the young may find their faith strengthened in the 
principles of the gospel ; thoughtful minds find food for reflec- 
tion, and the missionary Elder a valuable book of reference, is 
the earnest wish of 

The Author. 



INDEX 



Ancient Scientists 22, 164 

Absurdities of Spiritualism 19 

Anaesthetics Discovered 35 

Astronomy not Exact 39 

Apostles, their Character 122, 125 

Atmosphere, Condition of Early 179 

Aurochs not yet Extinct 188 

Benefits of Romanism 23 

Brahminism 16 

Bruno 29 

Buffon's Theory of Creation > 65 

Babylon, Prophecies Concerning 136, 139 

Books of New Testament 97 

Burial Place in Catacombs 128 

Bird, Earliest yet Found 1 96 

Bird-Like Reptile 191 

Bark from Coal Mine 182 

Catacombs 127, 129 

Calvin's Bigotry 29, 31 

Constantine, Character of 93 

Cosmas, Philosophy of 27 

Copernicus 29 

Causes of Infidelity 35, 36 

Carry le's Absurdities 77 

Compte's Absurdities 83 

Chesterfield's Letters 84 

Coin Found at Philippi 89 

Celsus, His Writings 95 

Crust of the Earth 43 

Comets 155, 156 

Correspondence of Paine 84 

Chalk Magnified 194 

Climate of Coal Period 184, 198 

Character of Heathen Gods 81 

Disagreement of Scientists 13, 47 

Dead Sea 70 

Dispersion of Jews 117 



vi; INDEX. 



Deluge, Scientific Theory of 154 

Dinornis, Skeleton of 189 

Development of Species 188 

Eye, Section of Human 58 

Errors in Astronomy 39 

Egypt, Present State of 142 

Errors of Romanism 25, 26 

Early Vegetation 182 

Extinct Birds > 188, 189 

Essential Conditions of Life 205 

Fire-Mist, Theory of 64 

Forest of Coal Period 185 

Faculties of the Mind 207 

Galileo 30 

Geology Uncertain 41, 45 

Giant Cities of Bashan 74 

Gibbon's Testimony 93 

Great Men Believers 212 

Humboldt 33 

Heathen Philosophy 79 

Heathen Morals 80 

Human Ej^e 58 

Heat and Motion 178, 179 

Huxley' s Embryotic Theory 1 90 

Illumination of St. Lawrence 176 

Influence of Judaism 119 

Jenner's Discoveries 35 

Juggernaut 82, 83 

IiUther's Superstition 32 

Light, Velocity of 1 56 

u Various Sources of 175 

" Without Sunshine 165,166 

" From the Earth 175, 176 

Marcion, the Apostate 96 

Milky Way 157 

Modern Prophecy 149, 150 

Monsters, Primeval 198 

Man's Nervous System 208 

Xewman's Absurdities 77 

New Testament Books 97 

Nature in Continual Change 167 



mi INDEX. 



Ocean, Primeval 


178 


Olbers, Theory of 


67 


Plesiosaurius 


197 


Protestant Bigotry 


33 


Parker's Absurdities 


77, 78 


Plato's Code of Laws 


80 


Paine, his Character and Writings 


84 


Paul, the Apostle 


102, 122 


Pliny's Letters 


109 


Personal Appearance of the Savior 


116 


Prophetic Symbols 


134 


Prophecy Concerning Judea 


144 


Egypt 


142, 143 


Babylon 


138 


Protoplasm 


204 


Rosetta Stone 


17 


Revelation Progressive 


72 


Religion of India 


15, 82 


Rings of Saturn 


153, 154 


Reptilian Bird 


192 


Servetus Burned 


31 


Spirit Controls Protoplasm 


205 


Simpson, James Y. 


35 


Section of Earth's Crust 


43 


u of Human Eye 


58 


Solar System 


66 


Solomon's Knowledge 


73 


Saturn 


153 


Stars Variable 


167 


Sun Spots 


173 


Sun Inhabitable * 


174 


Sun's Atmosphere 


172 


Spencer's Philosophy 


206 


Tertulian's Writings 


104 


Testimony of Tacitus 


106 


Trajan's Letter 


111 


Temple of Belus 


137 


Universe, Extent of 


55, 158 


Uintah Mountains, Section of 


54 


Worship of Juggernaut 


82 


Western Continent Upheaved 


199 



GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



CHAPTER I. 



ABSURDITIES OF INFIDELITY. 



THE PRESENT AN EARNEST AGE — AN EARNEST 
RELIGION REQUIRED — YOUNG MEN LIABLE TO 
SKEPTICISM — LITERARY FOPS — SCIENTISTS DO 
NOT AGREE — TESTIMONY OF SOCRATES AND 
PLATO — ABSURDITIES OF BRAHMINISM — AT- 
TEMPTS OF FRENCH INFIDELS — ROSETTA STONE 
— MODERN SPIRITUALISM. 

The gospel is truly a grand system. Let us try 
to entertain right views concerning it. Let us 
enlarge our minds to grasp it, that we may, to 
some extent at least, conceive its greatness and 
appreciate its beauties. 

The peculiar wants of the age in which we live 
are worthy of deep and careful consideration. 
Never was there a time in the history of the race, 
when learning and general intelligence were so 
well diffused as at the present. The press is throw- 
ing off continually its millions of printed pages, 
which are scattered broadcast as the leaves of 
Autumn. Books on almost every conceivable 
subject can be cheaply bought; and journals, mag- 



10 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



azines and pamphlets, both of a good and evil 
influence, attract the attention of the young. 

Never was there a time of more intense activity. 
Who can pass through the crowded streets of our 
cities, listen to the throbbings of the steam-engine, 
the hum of machinery, the appliances of electric- 
ity, gaze at the vast trains that are driven with 
fire and vapor along our railways, or view those 
magnificent structures that cross the mighty deep, 
without feeling that this is an earnest age? 

Now, this earnest, active, thinking age demands 
a religion that has life and power in it. Not a 
religion of cold formality and narrow sectarian- 
ism, but a religion that will satisfy the intellect 
with its truths, touch the heart with its love, sway 
the will with its persuasiveness, gratify the taste 
with its beauties and fill the imagination with 
its sublimities. A religion is wanted that will 
enlist upon its side the whole nature of man, and 
command his willing and devoted homage; a relig- 
ion that, bearing the full impress of its Author's 
image, shall carry its own credentials with it; and 
which, clothed with all the elements of truth and 
righteousness, beauty and grandeur of love and 
power, shall be revered by all those who love the 
truth, and dreaded by all who love it not. 

This is the religion that the gospel reveals. 
There is no antagonism between philosophy and 
faith, between science and religion, whatever the 
seeming oppositions of the present; in reality it is 
perfect harmony. The gospel overwhelms, nay, 
rather, includes all philosophy. 



YOUNG MEN LIABLE TO DOUBT. 11 

In the life of many young men there is a period 
of skepticism. Then the young man is extremely 
liable to doubt. Then he questions all his 
previous convictions, challenges all his accepted 
opinions, and is in danger of drifting aimlessly on 
the wide tossing sea of unbelief, the sport of every 
wind of doctrine, the easy prey of every theory 
conceived by the ingenious brain of man. 

At this period his faith in God and man is liable 
to be swept away through a misconception of the 
real teachings of science, and the example of those 
who seek to excuse their wicked lives under the 
specious plea of unbelief. This period of skeptical 
tendency comes early in life, frequently when the 
young man is in college or in the schools of science, 
when he begins to think and act for himself. It 
is intelligent, earnest young men of brains and 
capacity who are in special danger from the skep- 
ticism of the age. 

Many of these young men have been trained in 
the Sabbath school, but at nineteen or twenty a 
change comes over them. They feel the strength 
and vigor of awakening manhood, and that impa- 
tience of authority which is characteristic of young 
men in this formative period of life. A young man 
hears of men of learning who r ej ect religion; he reads 
now and then a magazine full of doubts and insin- 
uations, and he begins to feel that all his belief is 
simply the result of his education, and that under 
other circumstances he might have been a Confu- 
cian, a Buddhist or a Mahometan. Perhaps he 
meets with a tolerably educated but skeptical 



12 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

friend, who tells him in effect that religion is a 
fraud, that the Bible is a very good book, to be 
sure, but destitute of divine authority. He tells 
him, in a word, that these things may do for women 
and children to believe, but as for himself, he has 
put away all such belief along with his childish 
toys. 

Our young man listens to all this flippant non- 
sense with itching ears, until, at length, he pre- 
tends to believe the world was made by chance, is 
governed by chance and all things that exist are 
only the effects of chance. 

But there is a comical side to this question, as 
well as to many others. Prof. Agassiz wisely 
observes that, "men frequently talk very learnedly 
of what they know but very little;"' and I know of 
nothing more irresistibly ludicrous than to see one 
of these so-called scientific skeptics, who scarcely 
knows the difference between the leg of a wasp and 
the horn of a beetle, and yet will assume to pat- 
ronize the Almighty and talk about progress and 
culture as though he was the most remarkable 
prodigy of the age in which he lives. 

It is enough to disgust an honest man, to see 
some of these literary fops going along with Dar- 
win's works under one arm and a case of trans- 
fixed grasshoppers and butterflies under the other, 
talking about Huxley's "protoplasm" and "natural 
selection," and "nebular hypothesis," and "biogen- 
sis," and "abigensis," all the while lisping with an 
"exthquithit lithp", and indicating by word, tone 
and gesture that all who dissent from their opin- 



DISAGREEMENT OF SCIENTISTS. 13 

ions are grossly ignorant and scarcely worthy of 
their notice. 

But the greatest joke is that the scientists which 
they so much admire do not agree. Darwin is 
charging at Lamarch, Walace spearing Cope, and 
Herschel denouncing Ferguson. How many colors 
in a ray of sun-light? Seven, says Newton; only 
three, says David Brewster. How high above the 
earth is the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Light ? 
Two and a half miles, says Prof. Lias; one hun- 
dred and sixty-five, says Prof. Tumming. La 
Place says the moon was not put in the right place, 
it should have been four times as far away; while 
Prof. Lionville comes up just in time and gives us 
the wonderful information (?) that the Creator was 
acquainted with His business and fixed it exactly 
right. 

How far is the sun from the earth? Less than 
a million miles, says Zadkiel ; seventy-six millions 
of miles, says La Caille; eighty-two millions, says 
Humboldt; ninty millions, says Henderson; one 
hundred and four millions, says Mayer. Only a 
slight difference of one hundred and three millions 
of miles, or a good deal farther than a person 
could travel, at the rate of fifty miles per hour, 
during the next two centuries, if he could live 
that long. And yet, amidst all this confusion and 
contradiction, we are coolly asked to give up the 
words of inspiration and hang our hopes of the 
future on the miserable vagaries of self-contradict- 
ing philosophers. 
Another very lud icrous as well as amusing instance 



14 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY, 

of the folly of infidelity is the fact that skeptics 
will catch at almost anything upon which to hang 
their faith. All around us, in every grade of 
society, are to be found men who will tell us that 
the Vedas and Shasters of the Hindoos are far more 
trustworthy than the writings of Moses, Isaiah, 
Paul, Nephi or Joseph. They will tell us what 
sublime philosophers Brahma and Confucius 
were, while, at the same time, they have never 
read a word of their doctrines, or even seen a vol- 
ume of their works. All they know is what some 
other truth-hating infidel has told them. 

But for the sake of argument let us glance at 
some of these wonderful writings. Socrates, one 
of the greatest of heathen philosophers, admits, 
"We must of necessity wait till some one from 
Him, who careth for us, shall come and instruct 
us how to behave toward God and toward man." 

Plato declares, "We cannot know of ourselves 
what will be pleasing to God ; it is necessary that 
a law-giver should be sent from heaven to instruct 
us." And he further adds, "Oh, how greatly do I 
long to see that man ! " (Plato's Republic, Book iv 
and vi.) 

Who has not felt sad at the dying words of Soc- 
rates, "I am going out of the world and you are 
to continue in it, but which of us has the better 
part is a secret to all but God." Nor is the philos- 
ophy of India any better. A few years ago, when, 
through the labors of Oriental scholars, the Vedas 
and Shasters of the Hindoos were translated and 
printed in European languages, a great shout went 



ABSURDITIES OF BRAHMINISM. 15 

up from the army of infidels. "Here," said they, 
"is the true chronology. Henceforth the Jewish 
records must hide their heads." Accordingly the 
Shasters were, for a time, in high repute among 
those who knew very little about them. 

Now, when we remember that these much- 
vaunted histories profess to reach back through 
ma-ha-yugs or epochs of 4,320,000 of our years, 
that a thousand of these epochs makes a Jcalpa or 
one day of the life of Brahma — the nights being 
of the same duration — and that his life consists of 
one hundred years of such days and nights, we 
can easily see the absurdity of these histories. In 
these works are also the records of the seven great 
continents of the world, separated by seven 
rivers and seven chains of mountains, four hun- 
dred thousand miles high, and the history of the 
families of their kings, one of whom had ten 
thousand sons, another sixty thousand who were 
born in a pumpkin, nourished in pans of milk, 
reduced to ashes by the curse of a demon and 
restored to life by the waters of the Ganges. These 
records give statements of wonderful eclipses, 
comets and deluges, seven of which covered the 
earth, not merely to the top of these wonderfully 
high mountains, but even reaching to the polar 
star. Yet infidels have the assurance to quote these 
as standard works of undoubted authority, and 
w r orthy of the credence of intelligent beings. 
{Duff's India, page 127.) 

Nor are the promises of the future life any less 
absurd than the foregoing. "Tell me," said a 



16 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

wealthy Hindoo, who had given all his wealth to 
the Brahmins who surrounded his dying bed, that 
he might obtain a pardon of his sins, "what shall 
become of my soul when I die?" The priest 
replied, "Your soul will go into the body of a 
holy cow." "And after that?" he asked again. 
"It will pass into the body of a divine peacock." 
"And after that?" "It will pass into a flower." 
"Where, 0, where will it go last of all?" cried the 
dying man. "Where will it go last of all? Ah! 
that is the question." 

While British infidels were admiring the sacred 
writings of the Hindoos, and holding them up 
before the world as superior to the word of God, 
French skeptics were busy in a similar employment. 
When Napoleon invaded Egypt, in 1798, he took 
with him a large corps of scientific men. In the 
ceiling of a temple at Dendera, in Upper Egypt, 
some of these scientists discovered a stone tablet 
covered with strange characters. These charac- 
ters, it was concluded, were a representation of the 
relative positions of the sun, moon and stars at 
the time the temple was built; and, calculating 
backwards, it was found that this could not be less 
than seventeen thousand years ago. This tablet 
was taken from the ceiling of the temple and car- 
ried away to France, and placed in the national 
library in Paris. Hundreds of thousands came to 
see the antediluvian monument, and infidel com- 
mentators were never wanting to inform them that 
this remarkable stone proved the whole Bible to be 
a series of lies. One of the discoverers, after- 



ROSETTA STONE. 17 

wards a professor in the University of Breslau, 
published a pamphlet, entitled, "Invincible proof 
that the earth is at least ten times older than is 
taught by the Bible." During the next thirty 
years, scores of such publications followed; and 
the base slander received many additions and 
improvements, until it was a common saying that 
this stone proved that "the priests of Egypt were 
carving astronomy on their pyramids ten thousand 
years before Adam was born." 

It did not shake their credulity in the least, that 
no two of their wise men were agreed by some 
thousands of years, how old the stone was — that 
no one even knew the first principles of the Egyp- 
tian system of astronomy, and that none of them 
could read the hieroglyphics. 

But, in 1832, the curious Egyptian astronomy 
was studied, and it then appeared that this object, 
which had caused so much commotion, was simply 
a calendar stone to aid in the measurement of 
time; and that the positions of the sun, moon and 
stars were so placed to enable common observers 
to ascertain the beginning of the year. At length? 
by means of the Rosetta Stone — which furnished 
a key to these hieroglyphics — Champolion and 
others learned to read the inscriptions on Egyptian 
monuments. 

The Rosetta Stone was discovered by the French, 
in 1799, at Rosetta, Egypt. When in a perfect 
condition it was a tablet of black basalt, three feet 
high, two feet five inches wide, and ten inches 
thick. The inscription was in three languages: 



18 



GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



Coptic, Greek and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. 
On the publication of the inscriptions it was found 
that they were the key to the hieroglyphic charac- 
ters. It was then discovered that the names of 
Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, were engraved 
on the stone, as well as the names of the Eoman 







^ *^> .21. YV -£/ ^^) 






(Rosetta Stone, showing present and original form, and speci- 
mens of Greek, Coptic and Hieroglyphic characters.) 

emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and Domitian. 
The inscriptions revealed the fact that they had no 
reference to early Egyptian history. The edifice 
in which the first-mentioned stone was found was 



MODERN SPIRITUALISM. 1 9 



simply a heathen Roman temple, built between 
the fourteenth and eighty-first years of the Chris- 
tian era. 

Even at the present time, in the noon-day of 
modern science and so-called civilization, astrolo- 
gers,mediunis, clairvoyants and fortune-tellers by 
the hundred find a profitable business among those 
who consider themselves too learned, wise and 
progressive to believe in the word of God. One 
infidel lecturer even advertises that he will reveal 
to you the secrets of the future and cure you of 
any disease you may have, if you will only enclose 
in a letter a few hairs taken from your right tem- 
ple and — and — a — ten dollar bill. Concerning 
the future life, infidels have every variety of oracles, 
conjectures and suppositions; but for their guesses 
they have no proof. The only thing upon which 
they seem agreed is in denying the resurrection of 
the body. According to their ideas, a poor, naked, 
shivering, table-rapping spirit, obliged to fly over 
the world at the sigh of any brainless fop or silly, sen- 
timental girl, or the bidding of some brazen-faced 
strumpet, is all that ever shall exist of all the 
great and good men and women that have lived 
upon the earth. 

To such wild unreason does the mind of man 
descend when it rejects the gospel, for only through 
it life and immortality are brought to light. A 
year or two since, the leader of American infidels, 
Robert Ingersol, was called to deliver a funeral 
oralion over the body of his brother. In that 
short discourse there were many beautiful senti- 



20 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



ments: but through it all, as through a transparent 
glass, was shown the need, which even Ingersol 
felt, of divine revelation and divine guidance. 



CHAPTER II 



CAUSES OF THE SUPPOSED CONFLICT 
BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 



SCIENCE AND REVELATION HARMONIZE — WANT OF 
REVELATION THE CAUSE OF BARBARISM — BENE- 
FITS AND EVILS OF ROMANISM CONFLICT CON- 
CERNING GEOGRAPHY — PHILOSOPHY OF COS- 
MAS — STRUGGLES OF COPERNICUS—BRUNO — 
GALILEO — OPPOSITION OF LUTHER — SERVETUS 
BURNED^ — PROTESTANT BIGOTRY — CAUSES OF 
INFIDELITY. 

Truth is ever harmonious. Science and relig- 
ion, in the true sense of the terms, can never, be in 
conflict with each other. The direct revelations 
of God to man must ever agree with the results of 
scientific investigation. Invention and discovery 
are but the unfolding of the laws, attributes and 
objects of nature to man's finite understanding — 
the action of the divine will on th3 minds of men. 
So, whether man seeks for spiritual truth through 
the revelations of God, or looks out upon the 
material world and investigates the working of 
physical laws, the result must be the same. A 
truth revealed to the sensitive, impulsive human 



BENEFITS OF SCIENCE. 21 

heart to-day in its full play of emotions and pas- 
sions cannot be at any real variance with a truth 
written upon a far-off planet rolling in the depths 
of space, or upon a fossil whose poor life ebbed 
away thousands of years ago. Yet, strange to say, 
a conflict has been going on for years between 
some students of science on one side and the devo- 
tees of religion on the other. Nearly all the great 
and good men of the medieval or modern times 
have been engaged on one side or the other, and a 
hard contest it has been. The war has been waged 
longer, the battles have been fiercer, the sieges 
more persistent, the diplomacy more far-reaching, 
and the revenge more deadly than ever character- 
ized the military campaigns of Alexander, Csesar 
or Napoleon. 

Let us then inquire into the causes of this con- 
flict and try and understand something concerning 
it. In the first place we must be careful not to 
underrate science. On every side we see its bene- 
ficent effects. The food we eat, the clothes we 
wear, and the houses we dwell in depend in a great 
measure upon it for their existence. When we 
travel it is mostly by the appliances of science. 
The books we read are manufactured by its aid. 
It transmits our messages to and from our friends, 
and prepares the light that illuminates our streets 
and dwellings. It has contributed greatly to relieve 
human suffering and promote human happiness, 
and to distinguish the civilized from the savage 
races of the earth. 

And what has religion done? So long as it was 



22 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



true and pure it was the favored child of heaven. 
While the true church existed upon the earth, 
whether Jewish or Christian, we hear of no con- 
flict between its members and the students of sci- 
ence. On the other hand we find from their writ- 
ings that Moses, Job, David, Solomon and Isaiah 
were the leading scientists of the ages in which 
they lived. They understood natural history, 
architecture, sculpture, poetry, music, botany, and 
in astronomy they made such progress that many 
of the constellations still retain the names they 
used, such as Orion, Pleaides, etc. {See Job zxxviii, 
3 J ; Amos v, 8.) We read of no conflict between 
the truths of science and the teachings of Paul, 
though he was one of the most learned men 
of the age in which he lived. On the other hand 
the discourse of Paul in the court of the Areopa- 
gus, was the complement or sequel of ideas already 
held by the most celebrated Grecian philosophers. 
(See Acts xvii, 19-23.) 

It was not till after the great apostasy, when the 
voice of inspiration had ceased, that the great 
conflict commenced between science and the 
so-called Christian church. 

We shall better understand this fact, when we 
recollect that from the time of the apostles to the 
ninth century, science, literature and philosophy 
were well nigh extinct. No schools of painting 
flourished, no models in sculpture were designed, 
no order of architecture arose, no great poem was 
written, and no history compiled, which have been 
deemed worthy to be transmitted to our times. It 



BENEFITS OF ROMANISM. 23 

was only when European society came largely in 
contact with Jewish and Saracen influences during 
the wars of the Crusades and in contact with the 
Jews and Saracens of Spain, that any decided 
advances were made. As if to mark out to the 
world the real cause of its intellectual degrada- 
tion, the regeneration of Italy commenced with 
the banishment of the popes to Avignon. Their 
exile continued more than seventy years; and 
during their absence, so rapid was the social and 
intellectual progress that on their return to Rome, 
they found it impossible to make any successful 
resistance, or to restore the old condition of 
society. 

Yet even in her apostatized condition the 
Catholic church did much for the amelioration of 
society. At the commencement of the fourth cen- 
tury of the Christian era, a cloud of more than 
Cimmerian darkness overshadowed western Europe. 
It was then occupied by wandering savages. The 
period embraced in the next thousand years greatly 
improved its condition. It was during this period 
that the population were organized into families, 
communities and cities. Those centuries found it 
full of bondmen — they left it without a slave. 
Where there had been trackless forests, there were 
now farms, orchards and villages. Instead of 
bloody chieftains drinking out of their enemies' 
skulls, there were parish priests teaching the 
masses the crude beginning of religious thought. 
Instead of gladiatorial combats, which character- 
ized ancient Roman civilization, there were 



24 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

thoughtful men gravely pondering the problems 
of free agency and moral responsibility. 

Enveloped as she was by the evils of the times, 
the Catholic church gave rise to many improve- 
ments. She taught the doctrine of an ultimate 
accountability for personal deeds, of which the 
ancient inhabitants of Europe had very indistinct 
perceptions. Under her direction the brotherhood 
of man was taught as it had never been before, 
and was illustrated, not merely by individual acts 
of charity, the memory of which is soon forgotten, 
but also by the establishment of permanent insti- 
tutions, such as hospitals, alms-houses, schools and 
asylums for the relief of the afflicted, for the 
spread of knowledge and the succoring of the 
oppressed. Many of her high dignitaries, and 
even popes, were men who had risen from the 
humbler ranks of society. These men, true to 
their instincts, were often the champions of right 
against might. In an age of tyranny, the very 
organization of the church was essentially repub- 
lican. It thus paved the way for modern repre- 
sentative governments, and prepared the minds of 
men for their introduction. 

Still it was not over nations and communities 
that Rome showed her chief power, but in her con- 
trol of domestic and individual interests. History 
presents no record like hers. Her pontiffs in 
the quiet halls of the Vatican could equally take 
in a hemisphere at a glance or examine the pri- 
vate character of any individual. Was there a 
rebellion in Spain ? Her agents informed her of 



BENEFITS OF ROMANISM. 25 

it. Was there an obscure philosopher in Germany 
writing down the results of his investigations ? 
She also knew it. While she restrained the power 
and tyranny of kings by her influence, she also 
relieved the hungry beggar or wandering minstrel 
at the monastery gate. In all Europe there was 
not a man too obscure, too insignificant or too deso- 
late for her. Surrounded by her solemnities every 
one received his name at her altar, her bells 
chimed at his marriage and her knell tolled at his 
funeral. By her confessionals she extorted from 
him the secrets of his life, and by her penances 
she punished him for his faults. In the hour of 
sickness and trouble her servants sought him out, 
teaching him to place his trust in God, and 
strengthening him for the trials of life by the 
example of the good and faithful of former days. 
And when at length his lifeless body had become 
an offense, even to his friends, she received it into 
her consecrated ground, there to rest till the resur- 
rection morning. She raised woman from nearly 
the condition of a slave and made her the equal 
and fit companion of man ; and in turn, received a 
recompense by a firm friend in every home. In 
an age of bloodshed and plunder she lifted up her 
hand in defense of the weak, and made her sanc- 
tuaries a refuge for the despairing and oppressed. 
But here arose the difficulty. The so-called 
Christian church by apostasy had lost the key of 
revelation. Her decisions depended not upon 
the voice of inspiration but upon the musty parch- 
ments of the past. Claiming to be the church of 



26 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY 



God, she regarded her decisions as infallible and 
irrevocable, her teachings as beyond question. 
Her ideas were crystalized; her philosophy, if 
indeed it was worthy of that name, was stationary, 
as must be the case with all systems reposing on 
& final revelation of God. In the domain of the 
Catholic church during the space of a thousand 
years, namely from the time of the apostles to the 
eleventh century, not a book had been written, 
not a painting executed, nor statue sculptured of 
sufficient merit to rescue the name of the 
•author from oblivion. Throughout the length 
and breadth of Europe there fell a dark cloud of 
intellectual stagnation, an invisible atmosphere of 
oppression ready to break down morally and phy- 
sically whatever opposed its weight; except where 
a few feeble rays of light were kept flickering by 
the efforts of Jewish and Mahometan scholars. She at 
once disclosed her human and denied her divine 
origin by attempting to force fixed laws on society 
in the presence of higher truths and advancing 
civilization. 

The first great conflict was in reference to geo- 
graphy — the shape and surface of the earth. When 
science disclosed the fact that the earth was round, 
there was a great commotion, and so much the more 
since it was by Mahometan scholars that the dis- 
covery had been made. It was asked, "Can any 
good thing come out of Nazareth?" In other 
words, " Is it possible for vile Mahometans to 
understand and teach such a truth when it is not 
yet known to the assumed church of God?" At 



PHILOSOPHY OF COSMAS. 27 

once the war-spirit became fierce and hot. The 
great writer Eusebius treated the doctrine with 
contempt. Lactantius asks, "Is there any one so 
senseless, as to believe that there are men whose 
footsteps are higher than their heads? That the 
crops and trees grow downwards? That the rains, 
snow and hail fall upward to the earth?" (For 
farther particulars see WheweVs Hist. Induct. Sciences, 
Vol. I, page 196.) At this stage of the controversy, 
Cosmas Indicopleustes, by direction of the Catholic 
church, undertook to give a description of the 
earth. According to Cosmas, the universe is in 
the form of an immense box, twice as broad as it 
is high and twice as long as it is broad. At the 
bottom of this box lies the earth, surrounded by 
four great seas or oceans. At the outer edges of 
these seas, rise immense walls, which support the 
vault of heaven, even as the walls of a house sup- 
port the roof; and thus walls and vault shut in the 
earth and all the heavenly bodies. This vast box 
he divides into two compartments or stories. In 
the lower one men were said to live, and sun, moon 
and stars to move. The upper one was said to be 
the abode of God and angels, whose principal 
work was to push and pull the sun and planets to 
and fro, and to open the windows of heaven, and 
thus regulate the quantity of rain. 

The ignorance or impudence of Cosmas can only 
be partially imagined, when we recollect that he 
supported his theory by reference to the Bible, and 
quoted Genesis i, 6; Job xxvi, 11; Psalms cxlviii, 4; 
Isaiah xl, 22. All the sublime poetry and beauti- 



28 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

ful imagery of these texts were thus debased to give 
credence to the wild vagaries of this ignorant 
man. 

Space will not permit us to follow this contest in 
all its phases : suffice it to say that so late as the 
fourteenth century Cecco d ? Ascoli was burned 
alive for asserting his belief in the rotundity of 
the earth. {See Neander's History of the Christian 
Church, Vol, II, page 63.) The student of history 
will also remember how Columbus at the great 
council of Salamanca was overwhelmed by texts 
of scripture wrested from their rightful meaning. 
It was only after the successful navigation of 
the earth, by Magellan's ship, the San Vittoria, 
that Rome ceased to persecute the adherents of 
this doctrine. In all this contest Rome's dogmas 
only resulted in injury to herself. The authority 
of the scriptures was not in the end weakened, but 
rather strengthened ; but to thinking men, Rome's 
claim of divine right to interpret the scriptures 
was of little value. Rome had been "weighed in 
the balances and found wanting." 

It was therefore in a scientific not less than a 
religious point of view that many leading minds 
looked with favor toward that great religious 
movement known as the Reformation. 

While Luther, Calvin and Zwingle were busy 
denouncing the corruptions of the Romish church, 
the forces were preparing for the second great con- 
flict between science and so-called religion, namely, 
that concerning the motion of the earth. Coper- 
nicus lived at the same time as Luther, and died 



STR UG GLES OF COPERNICUS. 29 

two years before him. His was as brave a life as 
ever lived in story. For thirty-six years, at the 
very time the Protestant struggle was raging, he 
was working at that immortal book, De Revolu- 
tionibus Orbum, in w T hich he so clearly demon- 
strates the motion of the earth, and the revolution 
of the planets around the sun. But he dared not 
print it for many years. If he published it at 
Rome, it would fall into the hands of the Inquisi- 
tion; if he caused it to be printed in Germany, 
there were the Protestant leaders no less hostile ; 
if he sent it to Switzerland, there stood Calvin and 
Zwingle ready to burn it. At length the work was 
ready for the press. By the entreaty of the Romish 
Cardinal Schomberg, and with many apologies, 
Copernicus ventured to publish it. He was now 
old and feeble. Patiently he waited at death's 
door to see a printed copy. At length the long 
looked-for copy arrived, he saw it, composed him- 
self and died, 1543. 

Seven years after the death of Copernicus, was 
born that strange mortal, Giordano Bruno. For 
teaching the rotation of the earth he had to flee to 
Switzerland. But Calvin held power there and 
Bruno was soon obliged to leave. Driven in suc- 
cession from England, France and Germany, and, 
like Xoah's dove, finding no rest for the sole of his 
foot, he at length ventured to return to Italy, He was 
arrested in Venice, and after eight years of solitary 
confinement, was burned at Rome, February 16, 
1600. When the atrocious sentence w T as passed 
upon him, he nobly replied, "Perhaps it is with 



30 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

greater fear that ye pass this sentence upon me 
than I receive it." 

Meanwhile Galileo was prosecuting his studies 
at Florence. In May, 1609, he made his first tele- 
scope and pointing it toward the heavens saw the 
satellites of Jupiter and the phases of Venus. 
These were two of the weightiest arguments that 
had as yet been presented in favor of the Coper- 
nican theory. Already Galileo began to encounter 
vulgar indignation which accused him of impiety. 
In 1611, Galileo publicly exhibited the spots upon 
the sun. This only excited the rage of his perse- 
cutors. Goaded by opposition he wrote a letter, 
in 1613, to the Abbe Castelli, showing that the 
scriptures were given for our salvation, and not to 
teach astronomy in particular. This was repeat- 
ing Bruno's offense. Galileo was brought before 
the Inquisition, and, after years of imprisonment, 
only saved his life by denying the great truths he 
had discovered. He died 1642, in the seventy- 
eighth year of his age, the prisoner of the Inquisi- 
tion. But religious bigotry did not end there. It 
tried to follow him beyond the grave, disputing 
his right to make a will and denying him burial 
in consecrated ground. Nor were the leaders of 
the Protestant cause less bitter. 

In reference to Copernicus, Luther declared, 
"People give ear to an upstart astrologer, who 
strives to show that the earth revolves;" and again, 
" This fool (Copernicus) wishes to reverse the whole 
system of astronomy." Melancthon, in his treatise 
Initia Dodrinea Physical, says, "The eyes are the 



SERVETUS BURNED. 



31 



witnesses that the heavens revolve about the earth 
in the space of twenty-four hours/' and adds, "Now 
it is a want of decency to assert publicly the 
notions of Copernicus;" and Zwingle declares, 
"The earth can be no where, if not in the center 
of the universe. It is a part of a good mind to 
accept the truth as revealed by God, and acquiesce 
in it." (See Geschichte des Materialismus, Vol. J, 
page 217.) 




BUKNLNG OF SERVETUS. 

Further, Calvin proved the darkness of his own 
mind when he put to death that celebrated philo- 
sopher and physician, Michael Servetus, whose 
greatest crimes were that in religion he denied the 
absurd dogma that the Father, Son and Holy 
Spirit are three separate and distinct beings and 
yet one and the same person ; and in science he 
had partially succeeded in discovering the circula- 
tion of blood. The circumstances were also of the 



GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



most atrocious character. Servetus was roasted 
for two hours in the flames of a slow fire made of 
green wood. Meanwhile he was begging for the 
love of God that they would put on more wood or 
do something to end his torture. 

So also in superstition the Protestants were not 
^a whit behind the Catholics. In presence of the 
Protestant king, James I., of England, it was 
declared that Agnes Sampson with two hundred 
other witches had sailed in sieves from Leith to 
North Betwick church to hold a banquet with the 
devil. It was also said that the witches had bap- 
tized and then drowned a black cat, which caused 
a terrible storm in which the ship that carried the 
king narrowly escaped being wrecked. King 
James and the high church dignitaries who formed 
his privy council, believed the accusation and con- 
demned the poor woman to the flames. 

The leaders of German Protestantism were 
Luther and Melancthon, yet even they were vic- 
tims of the grossest superstition. They believed 
that in the Tiber, not far distant from the pope's 
palace, a monster had been found having the body 
of a man, the head of an ass and the claws of a 
bird of prey. After much speculation and search- 
ing of their Bibles, they concluded it was a mani- 
festation of God's anger against Rome, and they 
wrote a pamphlet about it. (See Buckle's Hist, of 
Civilization.) 

It is a quite common error to suppose these per- 
secutions to have emanated from the papal power 
exclusively. When we read of Copernicus escap- 



PR TEST ANT BIG OTRY. 33 

ing persecution only by death, of Bruno, burned 
alive as a monster of impiety, of Galileo impris- 
oned and humiliated as the worst of misbelievers 
we are apt to look upon these things as the effect 
of Romish intolerance. But we should not forget 
that Kepler who stands pre-eminently conspicuous, 
who lead science on to greater victories than either 
Copernicus or Galileo, who thought and spake as 
one inspired — even he was hunted alike hj Pro- 
testant and Catholic. Nor was this feeling of 
intolerance confined to any particular age. On 
the contrary we behold its continuance even to our 
own times. In Protestant England so late as 1772, 
the celebrated Dr. Priestly was not permitted to 
accompany the famous expedition for scientific dis- 
covery under Captain Cook, because he did not 
believe in the doctrine of the Trinity as taught by 
the Church of England. 

On the 10th of May, 1859, was buried Alexander 
Von Humboldt. His labors were among the 
greatest glories of this century, and his funeral 
one of the most imposing of modern times. Among 
those who did themselves the honor of following 
his remains to their last resting-place was the pre- 
sent emperor of Germany. But no minister of 
any sect was present except the officiating clergy- 
man and a few others who were considered as not 
in good standing in their respective churches. By 
these instances and many others it might be shown 
how has been wrought into the very fibre of 
modern society that pernicious idea that there is a 
necessary antagonism between science and religion. 



34 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

The lessons thus taught were clear and convinc- 
ing. Many intelligent minds saw that Protestants 
as well as Catholics lacked not merely the charit- 
able spirit of the gospel, but likewise that knowl- 
edge and authority, which are the certain results of 
divine revelation. The result was soon apparent. 
A violent reaction followed. Germany, the birth- 
place of the Reformation, is now the stronghold of 
infidelity. 

And why was this? What was it that made 
large numbers of the best men in Europe hate 
both the Catholic and Protestant religions? Why 
did Ricetto, Bruno and Servetus in the hour of 
martyrdom turn with loathing from that sacred 
emblem, the crucifix? The reason was simply 
this: So-called Christianity had been made to 
them identical with the most horrible oppression 
of mind, because they who had assumed to repre- 
sent Christianity had misrepresented it. In other 
words, the absurd theories, rigid dogmas and 
heathenish superstitions of apostate Christianity 
bore no more resemblance to the benign and 
heavenly principles of the gospel, than an ancient 
Egyptian mummy, with its shrunken skeleton and 
ghostly visage, bears to the person of a living 
being in the meridian of his mental and physical 
powers. (See appendix to Vol. IV. Histoire des 
Mathematiques.) 

Did space permit it would be easy to show that 
the Protestant sects have opposed scientific truth 
as bitterly, and been overthrown as completely as 
Rome has ever been. Not merely in the examples 



CAUSES OF INFIDELITY. 35 



of geography and astronomy, but also in chemistry 
and natural philosophy, as shown in the imprison- 
ment of Roger Bacon and John Barillon ; in anat- 
omy and surgery as illustrated in the persecutions 
against Versalius, the great anatomist of the six- 
teenth century. Xor was it merely in the olden 
times that this opposition was manifest. Scarcely 
eighty years have passed since Jenner, the discov- 
erer of vaccination, barely escaped with his life 
from the persecutions of leading religionists in 
Protestant England, forconferring upon mankind 
the knowledge of prevention of a horrible disease. 
So, also, in 1847, James Y. Simpson, the eminent 
Scotch physician, who did so much to alleviate 
human suffering by means of anaesthetics, was 
denounced throughout Europe and America by 
the leading Protestant ministers. The persecutors 
seemed to forget that, in the first surgical operation 
of which we have record, God caused a deep sleep 
to fall on Adam. (See Genesis ii., 21.) 

So, also, in geology, scarcely forty years have 
elapsed since both Protestant and Catholic leaders 
were denouncing that science as a "dark art," 
"infernal artillery," and "an awful evasion of the 
testimony of revelation." While such honored 
names as Prof. Sedwick, Edward Hitchcock, Louis 
Agassiz and Mary Somerville were denounced 
coarsely by name for those studies which unfold 
the winders of creation, and illustrate the good- 
ness of our Heavenly Father — studies that have 
made their names honored throughout the world. 
(See Silliman's Journal. Vol. 30, page 114.) 



36 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

And what has been the result of all this? In 
the older nations have come forth, by natural 
reaction, the most formidable enemies the so-called 
Christian church has ever known. Of these Vol- 
taire and Renan may be considered types, and 
there are many signs that the same causes are pro- 
ducing similar results in our own country. Yet 
Renan, Bennet and Ingersol are not haters of truth. 
Rather may it be said, they hate counterfeits and 
are indignant at the assumptions of apostate 
Christendom. In their impetuosity they have 
rushed into the other extreme, and demand for 
science more than she can rightly claim. 



CHAPTER III 



FALLACIES OF SCIENTISTS. 



IGNORANCE OF SKEPTICS — ERRORS IN ASTRONOMY 
— GEOLOGY NOT RELIABLE — SCIENTISTS DIS- 
AGREE — TESTIMONIES OF HUGH MILLER — HUM- 
BOLDT — LYELL SECOND-HAND KNOWLEDGE — 

OUR NEKD OF FAITH. 

"A little or superficial knowledge may incline 
a man's mind to atheism ; but depth in philosophy 
bringeth him back to religion." So said Francis 
Bacon, one of the world's greatest philosophers, and 
history has proved his saying to be true. The 



IGNORANCE OF SKEPTICS. 37 

great lights of the scientific world, such as Colum- 
bus, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Herschel, 
Agassiz, Rosse or Proctor, all have cherished a rev- 
erence for religion. On the other hand, it is gen- 
erally third or fourth rate men of learning, or 
those whose impetuosity is greater than their 
judgment, who ever attempt to achieve distinction 
as infidel lecturers. Men who have failed in their 
business for want of capacity, frequently turn mis- 
anthropes and denounce truths and men that they 
have not brains enough to comprehend. True, 
apostate Christianity has been "weighed in the 
balances and found wanting," but does that prove 
that there is no vital, no divine religion that will 
satisfy the intellect of man with its truths, and 
touch the heart with its love — a Christianity which, 
bearing the full impress of its Author's image, 
shall take its place among the various forces at 
work in society and eventually subordinate them 
all? Nay, verily! As well might we say that 
because there are counterfeit bank bills in exist- 
ence, therefore, none are genuine. 

One cannot help being amazed at the cool impu- 
dence with which infidels take for granted the 
very points to be proved, and set aside, as unworthy 
of serious examination, the most authentic records 
of history and facts of science. When skeptics, 
who are determined not to believe in the Bible, 
find the historical evidences of its genuineness, 
authority and inspiration impossible to be over- 
thrown by ridicule or sophistry, they turn their 
attention to some other mode of attack; and, of 



38 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

late years, they have ransacked the whole circle of 
sciences hoping to find a more powerful weapon. 
Especially has every new discovery be<:n hailed by 
skeptics as an ally to their cause, until further 
acquaintance has proved that it was not so. Thus, 
when geology began to upheave its titanic form 
it was eagerly greeted by skeptics; but now that 
they have discovered the proofs it gives of a Creator 
they are getting shy of its acquaintance. 

It is, therefore, worth while to enquire, is science 
really so positive as these persons pretend? Or, is 
it true that the students of the physical sciences 
have no certain knowledge of their theories? We 
need not here speak of the disputes between Her- 
schel and Ferguson, Newton and Brewster, La 
Place and Lionville. Rather let us begin with the 
most positive of all sciences, Mathematics — the sci- 
ence of magnitude and numbers — and note a few 
things concerning it. Upon reflection, it is sur- 
prising how few subjects are capable of a mathe- 
matical demonstration. 

The mathematician may demonstrate the size 
and properties of a triangle, but he cannot demon- 
strate the continuance of any actual triangle for 
one hour, or one minute after his demonstration. 

A mathematical proof admits of no doubts or 
contingencies. A man may calculate the force of 
the wind, but he cannot tell how long it will con- 
tinue to blow in that direction, whether it will 
increase to a hurricane or subside to a calm. He 
may count the revolutions of an engine, but he 
cannot test its extreme power, or prove its contin- 



ERR ORS IN ASTR ONOMY. 39 

ued existence for a single hour. How many of 
the most important affairs of life can be demon- 
strated by means of the multiplication table? It 
would be safe to say not one in ten. Again, math- 
ematics frequently deal with purely ideal figures, 
which never did or never can exist. There is not 
a mathematical line — length without breadth — in 
all the universe. On careful examination, we find 
that there are no mathematical figures in nature. We 
speak of the earth as a sphere, but it is a sphere 
pitted with hollows as deep as the ocean, and 
crested with protuberances as high as the Andes 
or Himalayas, in every conceivable irregularity of 
form. There is not an acre of absolutely level 
ground on the face of the earth ; even its waters 
pile themselves up in waves, or dash into breakers, 
rather than remain perfectly level for a single 
hour. The microscope reveals the fact that the 
pearl is proportionally rougher than the surface 
of the earth, and the dew-drop is no nearer round 
than a pear. When we speak of the orbits of the 
planets as elliptical or circular, it is only in a gen- 
eral way; just as we speak of a circular saw, the 
outline of its teeth being regularity itself, as com- 
pared with the motions of the planets in their 
orbits. 

So also with Astronomy, it is far from being an 
exact science. From the comparative simplicity 
of the forces with which it has to deal, and the 
approximate regularity of the paths of the 
heavenly bodies, it may be regarded as the science 
in which the greatest possible certainty is attain- 



40 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

able. It opens, at once, the widest field to the 
imagination, and the noblest range to the reason; 
it has attracted the most exalted intellects to its 
pursuit, and has rewarded their toils with the 
grandest discoveries. Lest we should ascribe to 
the discoverers of the laws of the universe, the 
glory due to their Creator, let us glance at some 
of the errors of astronomy. 

Sir John Herschel, than whom none has a 
better right to speak on this subject, devotes a 
chapter to the "Errors of Astronomy." 

"No philosophical observation or experiment is 
absolutely accurate. The error of a thousandth 
part of an inch in an instrument, will multiply 
itself into thousands and millions of miles accord- 
ing to the distance of the object." 

To begin at our own little globe, where exactness 
is more easily attained, than among distant planets, 
we find that two of the greatest astronomers, Bessel 
and Newton, differ from each other in the measure- 
ment of the diameter of the earth fully eleven miles. 
So also the diameter of the earth's orbit is uncertain 
by 360,000 miles. Now the diameter of the earth, 
and the diameter of its orbit are the very foot rule 
and y-ard stick, as it were, by which astronomers 
measure the heavens. (See Humboldt's Cosmos, Vol. 
I. page 7, and Vol. LV. page 477.) 

"Let us then be candid," says Loomis, "and claim 
no more for astronomy than is reasonably due. 
When in 1846 the great astronomer Le Verrier 
announced the existence of a planet hitherto 
unseen, and when he assigned to it its exact posi- 



GEOLOGY NO T RELIABLE. 41 



tion in the heavens, and declared that it shone 
like a star of the eighth magnitude, not an astron- 
omer of France, and scarcely one in Europe had 
sufficient faith in the prediction to prompt him 
to point his telescope to the heavens." 

So also geology, one of the most recent of the 
sciences, and in the hands of infidel nurses one of 
the most noisy, has been found to be unreliable in 
many particulars. True a wonderful outcry has been 
raised about the antagonism between the records of 
the rocks, and the records of the Bible. But no one 
has yet succeeded in proving such an antagonism; 
for the plain reason that neither the Bible nor geol- 
ogy says how old the earth is. They both say it is 
very old. The Bible says, "In the beginning God 
created the heavens and the earth." The term 
here translated "in the beginning" signifies, as 
every Hebrew scholar knows, a period of such 
remote antiquity, that in Bible language it stands 
next to eternity. Now if the geologist could prove 
that the earth is a thousand million years older 
than the time when Adam appeared upon it, this 
would contradict no statement of the Bible. So 
when infidels come to us with their geological 
theories about the manner in which God made the 
earth, or in which the earth is said to have made 
itself, and how long it took to do it, and tell us 
that they have scientific demonstration from the 
rocks that the Bible is false, we surely have a right 
to enquire into the foundation of these theories 
upon which they have built such startling conclu- 
sions. Now it is remarkable that every infidel 



42 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

argument is based not upon the/acfe, but upon the 
theories of geology. But how does our infidel 
geologist set about his work of proving that the 
earth has any given age, say a thousand million 
years ? Why he simply commences with a theory or 
supposition. Yet a demonstration must rest upon 
facts, it admits of no suppositions. In examining 
the crust of the earth we find agreat many layers of 
rocks,one above the other, evidently formed below 
the water, some of them out of the fragments of 
former rocks containing bones, shells and casts of 
fishes and tracks of the feet of birds, made when these 
rocks were in the state of soft mud. These layers 
form what is termed the crust of the earth, and are 
altogether several miles in thickness. Yet not one of 
these layers gives us the element of time. They 
announce to us successive generations of animals 
and plants ; but they do not tell us how long these 
generations lived. We have every reason to believe 
that the condition of the world was very different 
then, from what it is now ; not only as regards its 
temperature, of which we have many proofs that it 
was much higher than at present ; but likewise in 
regard to the density of the atmosphere and the 
destribution of water on the surface of the globe. 
All these conditions indicate that both animal and 
vegetable life were then far different from what 
they are now, as the fossil remains of those animals 
and plants abundantly and unquestionably prove. 
But in all this we have no means of determining 
the duration of those species. The various species 
of plants and animals may have flourished during 



SECTION OF THE EARTH'S CRUST 



43 



wmm 




Recent Deposits — Showing remains of 
animals still existing. 

H Quaternary — Showing lemains of some 
eh- extinct and some living species. 



First appearance of deciduous trees, 
(those that drop their leaves in autumn) 
showing alternations of heat and cold. 



Remains of vertebrates (animals 
having back bones) of the more perfect 
species. 



Mammals, (milk-giving animals] ; car- 
nivora, (flesh-eating animals), mon- 
keys, etc. 




First appearance of birds and land mon- 
sters, megatheriums, mammoths, etc. 



retacious Rocks— Age of reptiles and 
amphibious monsters, as iguanodous, 
saurian-^ and crocodiles. 

arboniferous Rocks —Age of coal 
formation; first indications of reptiles, 
numerous amphibious animals — sup- 
posed uniform climate. 

Sub- Carboniferous— First traces of 
amphibious animals. 

First traces of cone- bearing trees, 
i pines, ferns, etc. 

< ■ First fishes; first vertebrates; numer- 
| sous shell fish; limestone strata. 

5 Chalk measures; sandstone strata. 

Silurian Rocks — Few traces of life; old 
red sandstone. 

Huron ian Rocks — No traces of life; 
gneiss, quartz, felspar, mica. 

Laurentian Rocks — Granite. 



SECTION OF THE CRUST OF THE EARTH. 



44 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

a period of a thousand, a million, or a thousand 
million years for all we know. 

Here is a problem exactly similar. On examina- 
tion we find that a certain house is built on a 
foundation of well-cemented concrete three feet 
deep, that it has ten courses of stone in the base- 
ment, forty courses of brick in the first story, thirty- 
six courses in the second, thirty-two in the third ; 
with a roof of nine inch rafters, covered with inch 
boards, and an inch and a half layer of coal-tar 
and gravel; now tell us how long was the house 
in building? Why the very school-boy w^ould 
laugh at the absurdity of such a question. He 
would say, "How can I tell unless I know 7 where 
the materials were obtained, how they were con- 
veyed, how many workmen were employed, and 
how much they could do in a day ? If the rock 
had been brought from a distance, the brick to be 
made by hand, the lumber all dressed with a hand- 
saw and jackplane, and all the w r ork done by a slow- 
going jobbing contractor who employed only three 
or four men — why, they would not get through in 
a year. But if the rock was found in excavating 
the cellar, if the brick were made by machinery and 
near at hand, the lumber dressed by steam saw 
and planing mills, and thirty or forty workmen 
employed, it might be all finished in a month." 

So the geologist ought to say, "I do not know 
either the source of the materials of the earth's 
strata nor the distance from which they were con- 
veyed to their present position, nor the forces 
which wers employed in changing them from their 



UNCERTAINTIES OF GEOLOGY, 45 

primitive elements to the forms in which we now 
see them ; therefore I cannot tell the time required 
for their formation. If the crust of the earth was 
originally fused into granite by intense heat, and 
this granite has been thrown up into vast mountains 
by the internal heat of the earth; and in turn, 
these mountains have been slowly worn away, by 
the action of wind, rain and frost, and conveyed 
down to the shores of the primeval ocean, by the 
still slower agency of mountain torrents and rivers ; 
and if these deposits having first been the home of 
various species of animals and plants have hard- 
ened into rock which in turn has been heaved up 
by volcanic forces — if this was the mode of creation, 
hundreds of millions of years may have been 
required to produce the effects we now see upon the 
surface of the globe. 

"But if the crust of the earth originally consisted 
of the various elements of which granite and 
other rocks are composed, if (as is generally con- 
ceded, granite is the lowest in the scale of all the 
rocks with which man is acquainted,) the granite 
was fused into its present condition by the intense 
heat generated by the chemical action of these 
elements upon each other, and if the overlying 
strata were consolidated by the vast pressure of a 
universal ocean, as is generally conceded to have 
covered the earth at a certain geologic period, and 
if these rocks were baked by their own chemical 
heat or by the continuous heat of the underlying 
granite, while the cooler temperature of the water 
above prevented the upper strata from becoming 



46 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



so solid — then, under such circumstances, a very 
few centuries might suffice." (See LyelVs Prin- 
ciples of Geology, chapters 12 and 32.) 

Until these indispensable preliminaries are 
settled, geology can make no calculations of the 
length of time occupied by the formation of the 
strata. 

Again, all geological computations of time are 
made upon the supposition that only the same 
agents were then at work which we now see, that 
they wrought with the same degree of force and 
produced the same results though working under 
widely different conditions. For example, sup- 
pose it now takes a year to deposit mud enough 
at the bottom of the sea, to make an inch of rocks, 
and if mud was deposited no faster in those remote 
ages, then the rocks would be as old as there are 
inches in the eight or nine miles depth to which 
the strata extends. But how can we prove that 
mud was deposited at the same rate then as now? 
And so the whole fabric of geological chronology 
vanishes into a mere unproved notion, based upon 
an if 

It is truly astonishing that any sober-minded 
person should allow himself to be shaken in his 
religious convictions by the alleged results of a 
science so unformed and imperfect, as geologists 
themselves acknowledge their favorite science to be. 
Thus Hugh Miller admits, "There are no calcula- 
tions more doubtful than those of the geologist ;" 
and again, "It furnishes us with no certain clue by 
which to unravel the unapproachable mysteries of 



SCIENTISTS D TSA GREE. 47 

creation." (See Footprints of the Creator, page 
313.) 

These mysteries belong to the wondrous Creator, 
and to Him only. Men attempt te theorize upon 
them, and to reduce them to law; but all nature 
rises up against them in their presumptuous rebel- 
lion. A stray splinter of cone-bearing wood, a 
fish's skull, the skeleton of a reptile, the tooth or 
jaw of a quadruped, all or any of these things — 
weak and insignificant as they may seem — when 
found imbedded in the strata of the rocks, become 
evidence too strong for man and all his theories. 
These puny fragments in the grasp of truth become 
weapons as irresistible as the dry bone in the hand 
of Sampson of old ; and our slaughtered theories 
lie piled up heaps upon heaps before them. 

Then, again, they are quarreling about the 
leading principles of the science. Hopkins 
attempts to prove that the crust of the earth is 
eight hundred miles thick, while Humboldt asserts 
that it is less than twenty-four. As the tempera- 
ture increases one degree for every forty-five feet 
we descend into the earth, so, at that rate, in less 
than twenty-four miles the heat would be so great 
as to melt iron and almost any known substance. 
But here, again, they differ. Wedgewood declares 
that iron melts at 21,000 degrees Fahrenheit; while 
Professor Daniels is positive that it melts at 2,786 
degrees Fahrenheit. Only a slight difference of 
18,214 degrees. 

But then comes the great question: if granite is 
the lowest layer in the strata, what is below the 



48 G OSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

granite? De Beaumont affirms that "the whole 
globe, with the exception of a thin envelope — much 
thinner in proportion than the shell of an egg — is 
a melted mass kept fluid by heat, but constantly 
cooling and contracting its dimensions and occa- 
sionally cracking and falling in, and squeezing 
upwards large portions of the mass, thus produc- 
ing those folds or wrinkles which we call mountain 
chains." On the other hand, Davy and Ly ell think 
that "we may perhaps refer the heat of the inte- 
rior to chemical changes going on in the earth's 
crust." So much for the uncertainties of geol- 
ogy. 

If space permitted, it would be easy to go over 
other sciences and show similar uncertainties in 
them all. It is worthy of notice that the uncertain- 
ties of science increase just in proportion to our 
interest in it. About what does not concern us, it 
is very positive; but very uncertain about our 
dearest interests. The astronomer may calculate 
with considerable certainty the movements of dis- 
tant planets with which we have no intercourse ; 
but he cannot predict the heat or cold, clouds or 
sunshine, and other phenomena continually occur- 
ring on our earth. The forces of heat may be 
measured, to some extent, but what physician can 
measure the strength of the malignant fever that 
is destroying the life of his patient. The chemist 
can thoroughly analyze any foreign substance, but 
the disease of his own body, which is bringing 
him to the grave, he can neither weigh, measure 
nor remove. Science is very positive about distant 



SECOND-HAND KNO WLED GE. 49 

stars and remote ages, but stammers and hesitates 
about the very lives of its professors. 

If such are the uncertainties of science to the 
actual investigators, what shall we say to him who 
has learned his science at school? When we meet 
with such an infidel, who denounces religion while 
he extols the certainties of science, would it not be 
well to ask a few questions such as the following? 
Have you personally measured the diameter of the 
earth, observed the transit of Venus, or calculated 
the distance of the moon ? Or, further, would you 
feel yourself competent to perform such labor ; or 
is it possible that, after all your boasting, you have 
taken your science at second-hand, and on the tes- 
timony of another? Again, perhaps you are a 
student of the stone book (as scientists sometimes 
call the strata of the earth's crust), with its endur- 
ing records graven in the rock forever; and per- 
haps you profess to believe that under these pon- 
derous strata the Bible has found an everlasting 
tomb! But how many of the volumes of this 
stone book have you perused personally! Have 
you ever visited the many localities in our own 
country, to say nothing of the instructive lessons 
to be learned from the strata of England, Scotland, 
Wales, the Himalayas, the Andes and the Laure- 
tian rocks of Canada, where the different forma- 
tions are to be seen? Have you personally 
excavated from their beds, the various fossils that 
form, as it were, the very alphabet of the science; 
or, is it possible that all you know of geology is 
from the specimens of collectors, and the state- 



50 GOSPEL PHIL SOPHY. 

ments of lecturers aided by maps of ideal stratifi- 
cation in rose-pink, brimstone-yellow and indigo- 
blue? 

But perhaps you are a chemist, and proud, as 
most chemists are, of the accuracy attainable in 
that most demonstrative science. But how much 
of it is really science to you? Of the nine hun- 
dred and forty-two substances mentioned in Turn- 
er's Chemistry, how many have you analyzed? 
Could you truthfully say one-half, one-fourth, or 
even one-tenth? Much less, would you face the 
laughter of a college class, to-morrow, upon the 
experiment of taking nine out of the nine hun- 
dred, reducing them to their primitive elements, 
and giving an accurate analysis of their component 
parts? 

In fact, do you know anything worth men- 
tioning of the facts of science upon your own 
knowledge, except those of the trade by which you 
make your living? Or, after all your boasting 
about scientific certainty, is it true that you have 
been obliged to receive your science upon faith, 
at second-hand, and on the w r ord of another, and 
to save your life you could not tell w r ho that other 
is, or even name the discoverers of half the scien- 
tific truths you believe? Therefore, whatever pre- 
cision may be attained by scientific men — and we 
have seen that it is not much— it is very certain 
you have none of it. The very best you can have 
to wrap yourself in is a second-hand assurance, 
grievously torn by rival schools, and needing; to 
be patched every month by later discoveries. 



OUR NEED OF FAITH. 51 

But this is not all. Most sciences are not only un- 
certain, but also insufficient. We demand the know- 
ledge of truths of which science is profoundly 
ignorant. Of all the great problems and precious 
interests which belong to me as a mortal or immor- 
tal being, science knows nothing. I ask her whence 
I came. She points to her pinions stretched over 
the abyss of primeval fire, her eyes blinded by its 
awful glare, and remains silent. I inquire what 
I am ; but the strange and questioning J is a mys- 
tery which she can neither analyze nor measure. I 
tell her of the voice of conscience within — she 
never heard it and does not pretend to understand 
it. I tell her of my anxieties about the future 
— she is learned only in the past. I inquire how 
I may be happy hereafter— but happiness is not a 
scientific term, and she cannot even tell me how to 
be happy here ! Poor, blind science ! 

Further still,all our dearest interests lie beyond the 
domains of physical science, in the regions of faith. 
Science treats of things-faith is confidence in persons. 
Take away the persons and of what value are the 
things? The world becomes at once a vast desert, 
a dreary solitude. I can live, and love, and be 
happy without science ; but not without compan- 
ionship whose bond is faith. In its sunshine alone 
can happiness grow. It is faith sends man out in 
the morning to his work, nerves his arms through 
the toils of the day, brings him home in the even- 
ing, gathers the children around the table, inspires 
the oft-repeated efforts of the little prattler to 
ascend his parent's knee, clasps the chubby arms 



52 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

around his neck, looks with the most confiding 
innocence into his eye and puts forth the little 
hand to catch his bread and share his cup. Un- 
doubting faith is happiness even here below. Need 
we marvel, then, that man must be converted from 
his pride of empty, barren science, and casting 
himself with all his powers into the arms of faith, 
become as a little child before he can enter into 
the kingdom of heaven? 



CHAPTER IV. 



DID THE WORLD MAKE ITSELF? 



MANIFESTATIONS OF POWER — MOUNTAIN CHAINS 

PHENOMENA THE EFFECT OF CAUSE— EXTENT 

OF UNIVEKSE — MANIFESTATIONS OF DESIGN 

THE HUMAN EYE— MATTER INERT — DID THE 
PAVING-STONES MAKE THEMSELVES? — THEORIES 
OF BUFFON — OF DR. OLBERS — HISTORY DE- 
CLARES god's GOVERNMENT. 

"Nature is but the name of an effect whose cause is 
God."— Cowper. 

"The infidel astronomer is mad." — Herschel. 

Had the world a Creator, or did it make itself? 
Let us look out upon nature, and see what there is 
to suggest the idea of God. Infidels tell us that 
faith is destined to be left behind in the onward 
march of intellect; that it belongs to an infantile 



MANIFESTATIONS OF PO WER. 53 

stage of intellectual development; that children 
and childish notions are prone to superstition, 
which is only another name for religion. To 
account for the wonders of creation they will coolly 
talk of the eternity of matter, and the action of 
natural laws, as if these assertions would lead 
them out of their dilemma. 

One of the most impressive lessons that a person 
ever learns, is from the manifestation of power as 
shown in the phenomena of nature, as, for exam- 
ple, when he gazes upon the phenomena of a 
thunder storm. The dark and thickening cloud, 
the flashes of the lightning, th,e roaring of thunder, 
the dashing of the rain and the wild sweep of the 
winds, sometimes crushing forests in their path- 
way, are all manifestations of an unseen power. 
Among the works of human hands, the traveler 
gazes with amazement at the ponderous bulk of 
the pyramids. But what are the pyramids to the 
Alps, which have been lifted by some power to an 
altitude thirty-three times the hight of the larg- 
est pyramid? And yet the Alps are little more 
than half the hight of the Andes, and not more 
than a hundredth part of their mass. These pon- 
derous mountain chains have been upheaved bod- 
ily, tearing their way through masses of solid rock 
miles in thickness, uplifting, crushing, tilting and 
dislocating the solid floor of half a continent. 
Here is a power which may well amaze us. 

Again, no strain, that man has ever applied, has 
compressed or stretched, in the least perceptible 
degree, a block of building stone. In fact, the 



54 



GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



architects and builders of the most ponderous edi- 
fices, such as the Salt Lake Temple, make not the 
least allowance for the compression of the stones 
which lie at their very base. Yet such is the 
strain which nature exerts upon the rocky slabs 
built into the hill-sides, that they yield like india- 
rubber to the pressure; and when, by quarrying, 
the strain is relieved, the crushed rocks, with a 
groan, ease themselves back to their original dimen- 
sions. (See WincheVs Reconciliation of Science and 
Religion, page 334.) 




Ideal Section of the Uintah Mountains, Showing Upheaval 
of Strata and Underlying Granite — After Powell. 

And yet, after all, this is but one of nature's 
feeblest efforts. Look beyond the phenomena of 
uplifted mountain-masses, deep-scooped ocean 
basins, forest-laying tempests and land-consuming 
waves. Look out into limitless space ! There hang 
worlds of ponderous bulk. They were fashioned 
by some skillful hand; they are upheld by some 
mighty agency; and moved onward in their 



EXTENT OF UNIVERSE. 55 

majestic course by some mysterious power. We 
cannot bring our minds to comprehend that power; 
but let us raise our thoughts and try to understand 
something concerning it. There is the sun whose 
bulk is so great that, if its center was placed where 
the center of the earth is, its body would extend 
in every direction as far as the moon. Nay, far- 
ther, it would extend beyond the moon a distance 
of twenty-four times the diameter of the earth. 
This vast sun, still in the fiery vigor of its youth, 
imparting light and life to all that dwell on the 
planets which revolve around it, is only one of the 
numberless orbs that shine in the abyss of heaven. 

Now, what is this power that has formed these 
glorious suns and sent them whirling onward 
through the cycles of the ages? The infidel tells 
us it is gravity. But what is gravity? Whence 
proceeds that mighty force which men call by that 
name? Matter is inert, that is, it does not possess 
the power of moving itself. It is evident, then, 
that matter is acted upon by some power outside 
of itself. In human affairs we can find no result 
without a cause, no design without a designer; 
and, on thinking carefully, we find that every 
designer is under the control of a will. So, in the 
field of nature, every phenomenon is but the effect 
of some cause, and that cause must have acted 
under the control of some intelligent will. 

We are still more amazed when we consider the 
inconceivable space over which this power extends. 
The bulk of the sun is beyond our mental grasp. 
How then shall we comprehend its distance from 



56 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

us? It is generally considered that the sun is about 
ninety-two millions of miles distant. It is easy to 
say these words, but difficult to realize their mean- 
ing. Our express trains move at the rate of thirty 
miles an hour. Now if a railway stretched from 
the earth to the sun, it would require three 
hundred and fifty years for an express train to 
pass over it. If Champlain, the founder of Quebec, 
and Capt. John Smith and Pocahontas, so famous 
in early Virginia history, had stepped on board 
this train it would still require nearly eighty 
years more for their descendants to reach the end 
of their journey. The distance would still be so 
great, that only the great grand-children of the 
present generation could expect to reach the sun. 
And yet there is a power that reaches across this 
vast distance, swings the world around its orbit 
like a haltered colt trotting around a hitching post, 
lifts the ocean into a mighty tide and lashes the 
rocky shores with the fury of the angry waves. 
But this is not all. Light flashes across this 
mighty chasm in the brief space of eight minutes 
and a half. The light by which we read these 
lines started from the sun about the time we read 
the heading of this article. What shall we say of 
a space so vast, that this light must travel a year, 
a hundred, aye, even a thousand years before it 
reaches its destination? And yet there is a power 
that governs even there, a power so mighty that 
He "grasps the whole frame-work of stars and sys- 
tems, and sends them whirling and wheeling 
through the depths of boundless space like a 



INDICATIONS OF DESIGN. 57 

handful of pebbles thrown through the air." Well 
might the great philosopher and poet, Addison, 
exclaim : 

"The spacious firmament on high 
With all the blue ethereal sky, 
And spangled heavens, a shining frame, 
Their great Original proclaim. 

"In Reason's ear they all rejoice 
And utter forth a glorious voice, 
Forever singing as they shine, 
The hand that made us is divine. ' ' 

While we are amazed at the manifestations of 
power in creation, let us not forget the indications 
of intelligence and design that exist all around us. 
For example, I see a friend walking along the street 
in the rain, with an umbrella over his head, and I 
feel that somebody contrived that instrument 
with the design of keeping off the rain. In one 
word, it was intended for that purpose. In like 
manner we perceive marks of design and intelligence 
in the countless contrivances and instruments used 
in every-day life. In fact, we cannot look upon 
the simplest invention without feeling that it is 
the result of design and intelligence. Now the 
world is full of contrivances, which were not made 
by human hands, nor invented by human brains. 
The hand that wrote these words or the hand that 
set up the type to print them is a more ingenious 
contrivance than was ever made by human skill. 
If it required intelligence to make a pen, did it not 
require still greater intelligence to make the hand 
that wields the pen? If it required design to 



58 



GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



fashion a metal type, did it not require a still 
greater design to form the hand that manipulates 
that type? not to speak of that subtle and mysteri- 
ous power, called the mind, which guides the 
hand under both these circumstances. 

In like manner we might observe the marks of 
design and mechanical skill displayed in the 

formation of the eye. 




First, there is the cav- 
ity in which it is 
placed, composed of 
seven little bones 
nicely fitted and glu- 
ed together, lined 
with the softest fat 
and enveloped in a 
tissue, compared with 
which the softest silk is only coarse canvas. Then 
the cavity is so shaped as to exactly fit the eye, 
w r hile the brow projects over like the roof of a 
veranda and the lids close down over it to protect 
it from injury. Again, we find that the ropes and 
pulleys used in the rigging of a ship are simplicity 
indeed as compared with the nerves and muscles 
used in the movements of the eye. 

Most persons have seen a ship, and know the 
way in which the yards are moved, and the sails 
squared by means of ropes and pulleys. Now, 
there is a tackle called a muscle to pull the eye 
down when you want to look down; another to 
pull it up when you have done; there is one to 
pull it to the right, and another to pull it to the 



THE HUMAN EYE. 59 

left. There is one fastened to the eyeball in two 
places, and so arranged that it will move the eye 
in any direction, as when we roll our eyes; and a 
sixth fastened to the under side of the eye to keep 
it steady when we do not need to move it. Then 
the eyelids are provided with suitable gearing, and 
it needs to be durable too, for it is said to be used 
thirty thousand times a day, in fact, every time we 
wink. 

Xot less wonderful is the construction of the eye 
itself. The optic nerve is the part of the eye which 
conveys visions to the mind. Suppose instead of it 
being where you observe it, at the back part of the 
eye, it had been brought out to the front, and that 
reflections from objects had fallen directly upon it. 
It is obvious that it would have been exposed to 
injury from every floating particle of dust, and we 
would always have felt such a sensation as is 
caused by a burn or scald when the skin peels off 
and leaves the ends of the nerves exposed to the 
air. Also the tender points of the fibres of the 
optic nerve would soon become blunted and the 
eye of course useless. How then is the nerve to 
be protected, and yet the sight not obstructed ? If 
it were covered with skin as the other nerves are, 
we could not see through it. For thousands of 
years after men had eyes and used them, they 
knew no substance at once hard and transparent, 
which could answer the double purpose of vision 
and protection. To this day man knows no sub- 
stance clear enough for vision, hard enough for 
protection, and elastic enough to resume its form 



60 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

after a blow. Now observe in the eye, that for- 
ward part, called the cornea, is as it were the 
watch-glass. It it is made of a substance at once 
hard, transparent and elastic; something which 
man has never been able to imitate. 

It may be asked, what is the use of so many 
lenses in the eye? Light when refracted through 
a lens, becomes separated into its component 
colors — red, yellow, green, blue and violet. So 
that if the crystalline lens of the eye alone were 
used, we should see every white object, bluish in the 
middle, and yellowish and reddish at the edges. 
This difficulty perplexed Sir Isaac Newton all his 
life, and he never discovered the mode of making 
a refracting telescope which would obviate it. That 
remained for M. Dolland, a celebrated physician, 
to do; and he did it by studying and imitating the 
formation of the eye. Now what absurdity to say 
that a law of nature, such as gravity, or electricity 
has such a knowledge of the principles of optics 
and mechanics as the eye proclaims its Former to 
have ! In all this we see marks of the most admir- 
able design. The eye is fitted both to gaze at the 
stars millions of miles away and minutely exa- 
mine objects only a few inches distant. In the 
brightness of sunshine the pupil contracts in order 
to protect the optic nerve from injury ; in twilight 
it expands so as to admit a greater amount of light. 
When we wish to regulate the admission of light 
to our rooms we have recourse to very clumsy con- 
trivances. A self-acting window which shall 
expand in the twilight and partially close of its 



TS MATTER INDESTRUCTIBLE? 61 

own accord as the light increases towards noon, has 
never been manufactured by man. In short, ana- 
tomists have already observed more than eight 
hundred contrivances in the dead eye, while the 
greatest contrivance of all, the power of seeing, is 
utterly beyond their ken. 

Similar arguments might be brought from every 
department of nature to prove the marks of design 
in creation. The question therefore returns with 
double force, had the world a creator or did it make 
itself? There are persons who say it did, and with 
a brazen-faced impudence declare that the Bible 
tells a falsehood when it says that, "In the begin- 
ning, God created the heavens and the earth." 
"Whereas," say they, "we know that matter is 
eternal, and the world being w r holly composed of 
matter, therefore, the heavens and the earth are 
eternal — never had a beginning nor a creator." 
Profound reasoning indeed ! In the same manner 
we might say, "Here is a well-burned brick, fresh 
from the kiln, which may last for a thousand 
years to come ; therefore, it has always existed." 

Again, it is claimed by some that matter is 
indestructible. The foundation of the argument 
is as rotten as the superstructure. Who knows 
that fact? for the very reason that no one can tell 
what matter in its own nature is. We may heat 
water to a certain degree and change it into steam, 
but it is all there in the steam. We may burn 
coal and thus change is appearance, but its par- 
ticles are all there, in the form of gas, ashes or tar. 
All that any one can say is, that matter is inde- 



62 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



structible by any power or agency known to man. 
But to assert that matter is eternal, because man 
cannot destroy it, is as if a child should try to 
beat a locomotive to pieces with his stick, and fail- 
ing in the attempt should say, "I am sure this 
locomotive existed from eternity, because I am 
unable to destroy it." 

But, supposing that matter is eternal, how does 
that account for the formation of this beauti- 
ful world? The earth consists not of one sub- 
stance known by that name, but of a great variety 
of material substances as oxygen, hydrogen, car- 
bon, sulphur, iron, and some fifty-two or three 
others already discovered (see Turner's Chemistry, 
section 341). Now which of these is the eternal 
matter referred to? Is it iron, or sulphur, or car- 
bon, or oxygen ? If it is any one of them, where 
did the others come from? Did a mass of iron, 
for example, becoming discontented with its condi- 
tion, suddenly change itself into a cloud of gas or 
a pail of water? Or are all the elements eternal? 
Have we fifty-eight eternal substances? Are they 
all eternal in their present combinations, or is it 
only the simple elements that are eternal ? What- 
ever may be the answers to these questions, they 
give no light on the formation of this world, which 
is not a shapeless mass called matter, but a beau- 
tiful building composed of a variety of substances. 
Has this earth existed as it is from eternity? No 
man who ever was in a quarry or gravel pit will 
say so, much less one who has the least smattering 
of chemistry or geology. If the elements which 



MATTER INERT 63 

compose the earth have not always existed as we 
now find them, then how came they to put them- 
selves in their present shapes? Matter has no 
power of putting itself in motion when at rest, nor 
of coming to rest when in motion. A body will 
never change its place unless moved, and if once 
started will move on forever unless stopped. For 
example, if we leave our room, and on our return 
find a book missing, we know that some one has 
taken it — the book could not have gone off at its 
own suggestion. 

Now will the infidels presume to tell us, that the 
fifty-eight primary elements danced about till the 
air, sea and earth somehow jumbled themselves 
together into the present shape of this glorious 
and beautiful world, w r ith all its regularity of day 
and night, Summer and Winter, with all its beau- 
tiful flowers and lofty trees, with all its variety of 
birds, beasts and fishes, not to speak of the beau- 
ties of the morning, the gorgeous dyes of sun- 
set, or the silent glories of the midnight sky. Or 
to bring the question down to the level of the 
intellect of the most stupid atheist, tell us in plain 
English, did the paving stones make themselves ? 

Absurd as it seems, there are persons claiming 
to be philosophers who not only assert that they 
did, but will tell you how they did it. One class 
of them think they found it out by supposing 
everything in the universe reduced to very fine 
powder, consisting of very fine grains, which they 
call atoms; or, if that is not fine enough, into gas, 
of which it is supposed the particles are too fine 



64 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

to be perceived, and then by different arrange- 
ments of these atoms, according to the laws of 
attraction, electricity, or some other law, the vari- 
ous elements of the world were made, and arranged 
in their present forms. But then the difficulty is 
only multiplied millions of times. Each bit of 
paving stone, no matter how small you break it, 
can no more make itself or move itself, than could 
the whole stone composed of all these bits. So we 
are landed back at the sublime question, did the 
paving stones make themselves ? 

Others will tell you that millions of years ago 
the world existed as a vast cloud of fire-mist. 
What this fire-mist is they do not know, but only 
that there are certain comets, which come within 
fifty or sixty millions of miles of this earth, which 
they suppose may be composed of fire-mist. Hence 
they imagine that the earth also may have been 
made from the same fire-mist. But where did the 
mist come from? Did the mist make itself? 
Where did the fire come from ? Did it kindle of 
its own accord ? Who put the fire and the mist 
together? Was it red hot enough from all eter- 
nity to melt granite ? Then why is it any cooler 
now ? If it existed as a red hot fire-mist from 
eternity, why should it ever begin to cool at all ? 
Infidels claim that there was nothing else in 
all the universe except this fire-mist. Then the 
cause of all this must have been in the mist 
itself. In other words, the fire-mist made itself, then 
the paving stones and the infidels afterwards. 



THE OR Y OF B l T FFOJ\. 65 

Others suppose that the world was once in a 
stage of solution, in primeval oceans, and that the 
mixing of these waters caused them to deposit a 
sediment, which hardened into rock, then vege- 
tated into plants and trees, then grew into animals, 
these in turn developed into monkeys, and finally 
the monkeys into men. Thus it is clearly demon- 
strated that there is no need for the Creator if we 
only had somebody to make these primeval oceans, 
somebody to mix them together, and somebody to 
establish these laws of development. 

Another favorite theory among infidels, is that 
of Buffon, the vain-glorious French philosopher. 
His theory was that the sun is a vast melted mass, 
and that once on a time a huge comet struck the 
sun in such a manner, that portions of it splashed 
off, just as a stone thrown in a slanting direction 
into a bucket of water would cause portions of the 
water to splash out of the vessel. These portions 
of matter (acting under certain laws) then formed 
themselves into spheres and being condensed by 
cold have become solid planets and satellites. Thus, 
according to this idea, creation was only an acci- 
dent after all. Still, as might be expected, think- 
ing men kept asking: "Where did the sun come 
from? What melted it down into a fluid state fit 
to be splashed about ? Where did the comet come 
from? And who threw it with so correct an aim, 
as to hit the sun exactly in an oblique direc- 
tion." 

This idea received considerable encouragement 
from a certain class of scientific men during the 



66 



GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



early part of this century. Between the orbits of 
Mars and Jupiter is a vast space which was sup- 
posed to be unoccupied. In the first seven years 




SOLAR SYSTEM. 



of this century, three small planets were dis- 
covered revolving in orbits midway between Mars 



THEORY OF DR. OLBERS. 67 

and Jupiter. Afterwards many others were dis- 
covered until now the number exceeds two hun- 
dred. Dr. Olbers, the discoverer of two of them, 
Pallas and Vesta, finding that their orbits were 
comparatively near together and sometimes crossed 
each other, imagined that they w r ere formed by the 
explosion of a large planet or by a comet coming 
in contact with a large planet and thus shattering 
it to pieces. This theory seemed all the more 
plausible seeing that these minor worlds or "pocket 
planets," as Herschel styles them, are exceedingly 
diminutive. So, to use a familiar illustration, he 
imagined the boiler of a large locomotive had 
burst and the fragments had all alighted on the 
track in the shape of hand-cars; much more, that 
the hand-cars had magnanimously resolved to 
keep running and do the business of the line. At 
first sight this theory seemed strengthened by 
every new discovery. It is true, reflecting men 
could not help wondering at such a strange event, 
that would produce beautiful little planets all by 
accident. They never heard of the blowing up of 
a palace producing cottages, or the fragments of a 
steam-ship changing into yawl-boats, nor even the 
pieces of a wrecked locomotive becoming neat 
little engines or even respectable hand-cars. How- 
ever, as the theory removed God out of sight, it 
was generally accepted by the infidels and freely 
used by them, to show that the world has no need 
of a Creator. 

Genuine scientists, however, were not long in 
seeing the absurdity and demonstrating the impos- 



68 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

sibility of such a theory. It was found that their 
orbits did not coincide by more than twenty mil- 
lions of miles. Again, it has been proven that 
comets are incapable of greatly affecting a sun 
or planet. Herschel says, "It is evident that 
the most unsubstantial clouds which float in the 
highest region of our atmosphere must be looked 
upon as dense and massy bodies compared with 
the filmy texture of a comet." 

Thus Reason declares, that the world did not 
make itself. The soul of man did not make itself. 
The body- of man did not make itself. They must 
have had an intelligent Creator, who is God. The 
work is not the workman ; the house is not the 
builder; the watch is not the watchmaker. The 
maker is always distinct from the thing made and 
superior to it. You, and I, and the universe have 
been made ; therefore, our Creator is distinct from 
us, and superior to us. 

The consciousness of our ignorance and weakness 
confirms this fact. The soul of man is not the 
highest intelligence in the universe. In his present 
state he has not yet acquired a knowledge of the 
laws and functions of the body he inhabits, much 
less the laws that sway the universe. He may 
know much about what does not concern him ; 
but he feels his weakness where his dearest interests 
are concerned. He may be able to tell the place of a 
distant planet a century hence; but he cannot tell 
where he himself will be next year. He may 
calculate for years the motion of the tides; but he 
cannot tell how his own pulse will beat to-morrow, 



THE G VERNMENT OF GOD. 69 

or whether it will beat at all. Ever as his knowl- 
edge of the laws of nature increases, his conviction 
deepens that a wiser head and a stronger hand 
than his planned and rules the world. 

The world's history declares the existence and 
government of God. History is but the record of 
men's acts and God's providences, of men's crimes 
and God's punishments. Once He swept away the 
human race with a flood of water because the 
wickedness of man was great upon the earth. 
Again, He testified His displeasure against the 
wicked of Sodom and Gomorrah by consuming 
those cities by fire from heaven, and leaving the 
Dead Sea to roll its solemn waves of warning to 
the end of time. No amount of learning or skill, 
wealth or commerce, power of arms, or extent of 
territory, has ever secured a wicked nation against 
the sword of God's justice. Read the black record 
of the past. Where is the greatness of Egypt, 
Nineveh, Babylon and Petra? Tyre had ships, 
colonies and commerce, Rome an empire of half a 
hemisphere ; Greece had philosophy, arts and 
liberty secured by a confederation of republics, 
Spain the treasures of the earth's gold and silver? 
but these did not exempt them from the moral 
government of God. His laws sway the universe, 
and link together sin with misery, and crime with 
punishment, in the brazen fetters of eternal justice. 
These nations have been hurled down from the 
pinnacle of their greatness, to dash themselves in 
pieces against each other in the valley of destruc- 
tion ; and there they lie, wrecks of nations, ruins 



70 



GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 




... ■:,% -: : ^s':m 



RE VELA TION PR GRESSIVE. 71 

of empires, naught remaining, save some shivered 
fragments of former greatness, to show that they 
once existed and were the enemies of God. 



CHAPTER V 



OUR NEED OF REVELATION, 



REVELATION PROGRESSIVE — ITS RELATION TO CIVIL- 
IZATION — SOLOMON — HIS PROVERBS — NEWMAN'S 
ABSURDITIES — C ARLYLE — PARKER — HEATHEN 
PHILOSOPHY IMMORAL — ANCIENT ROMAN SONGS 
— CHARACTER OF HEATHEN DEITIES — RELIGION 
OP INDIA — COMPTE — BRADL AUGH — CHESTER- 
FIELD — PAINE. 

The philosopher finds only two books in all the 
world — two divine, original books, viz., the Volume 
of Nature, and the Revelations of God. All others 
are mere commentaries upon these two original, 
divine books. To these pertain all that has been 
thought, said or written, in all the ages past ; and, 
we might add, all that ever will be written in all 
the ages to come. That which explains, delineates 
or illustrates the volume of nature is called Science. 
That which unfolds to us the attributes of God, 
our own nature and destiny is revelation. It treats 
of that which man cannot otherwise perceive; its 
records are called the Scriptures or Books of Inspir- 



72 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



ation. The volume of nature is written upon the 
rocks, fields, forests and all the varied forms of ani- 
mal life, in symbolic characters, which it is the 
province of science to decipher. The volume of 
revelation is the impress of the divine will on 
man's spiritual nature. Thus both are the hand- 
writing of Deity Himself. Science teaches us 
material laws in relation to time. Revelation 
instructs not merely in these, but likewise includes 
spiritual laws and eternal duration. The lessons 
that man learns from age to age are progressive 
even as a school boy's. Science and revelation are 
therefore progressive, though in somewhat different 
ways. The former advances mainly through 
the exercise of human reason ; the latter through 
man's more favored circumstances, and the 
increased divine illumination of his spiritual 
nature. How vain, how arrogant the babblings of 
the sectarians who tell us that the book of 
revelation is forever closed! That man, in this 
puerile state, has already taken possession of the 
whole treasure of divine truth ! That the human 
mind with its poor plummet has already sounded 
the depths of the divine oracles! Still more 
benighted are they who do not see that there is a 
divine as well as human element in all our progress, 
that purity of heart is necessary for the clearest per- 
ception even of the truths of science. Thus the 
nations as well as the individuals who have the 
highest spiritual light are precisely those who have 
made the greatest intellectual progress. If we 
look over a map of the world we find that those 



WISDOM OF SOLOMON. 73 

nations which possess the purest religious ideas 
are precisely those which have made the greatest 
intellectual, social and political progress. Now 
religious ideas emanate from God. They are the 
result of the action of the divine will on the 
minds of men. Thus the progress of the nations 
depends upon the revelations of God. 

Thousands of years ago, Solomon perceived .this 
fact. He was a man of great learning as well as 
practical common sense. He understood not 
merely the science of government, but likewise 
botany, or the science of plants, from the mighty 
trees that grew on Mount Lebanon, to the tiny 
hyssop that grew in crevices of the garden wall: 
and the natural history of beasts and birds, rep- 
tiles and fishes. He was also skilled in literature; 
he is said to have made "three thousand proverbs, 
and his songs were a thousand and five" {see I. 
Kings, iv chap). Better than all this, in the opinion 
of many, especially infidels, he made money, and 
tells us how to make and keep it. Any young 
man will make hundreds of dollars by reading his 
Proverbs and acting on them. They would have 
saved some of us many a thousand. Of course 
Solomon knew something of the world. He was 
a wide-awake trader; his ships coasted the shores 
of Asia and Africa, from Madagascar to Japan; 
and the overland caravans from India and China 
drew up in the depots he built for them in the 
heart of the desert. He knew the well-doing 
people with whom trade was profitable, and the 
savages who could only send apes and peacocks 



GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 




THE INFLUENCE OF REVELATION 75 

{see L Kings, chap. x). Solomon was a philosopher 
as well as a trader, and could not help being deeply 
impressed with the great fact that there was a wide 
difference between the nations of the earth. Some 
were enlightened, enterprising, civilized and flour- 
ishing; others were naked savages, perpetually at 
war with each other, living in ignorance, poverty, 
vice and on the verge of starvation. 

Solomon also noticed another fact, that the 
nations which were favored with the revelations 
of God, were the civilized, enterprising and com- 
paratively prosperous nations. In Palestine, Chal- 
dea and Mesopotamia, God had revealed His will 
to certain persons for the benefit of the race. Even 
Egypt, it is now generally admitted, passed 
through the era of her greatest prosperity at the 
time she was in close relationship and communi- 
cation with the Hebrew Patriarchs, Abraham, 
Jacob and Joseph, who were the living oracles of 
God, and whose influence greatly increased for a 
time her national prosperity. On the other hand 
the nations that were uninfluenced by the revela- 
tions of God, were the idolatrous savages, who were 
but little above the level of the brutes. Solomon 
epitomized these great facts in the proverb, "Where 
there is no vision the people perish, but he that 
keepeth the law, happy is he" {Proverbs xxix, 18). 

"0," says the skeptic, "the world is wiser now 
than it was in Solomon's days. He lived in the 
old times of ignorance and superstition, when men 
attributed everything extraordinary to the gods. 
But we are too wise now to believe in revelation." 



76 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

Again, Straus says, "No just notion of philosophy 
or history is possible which includes a belief of 
those things that we do not understand." Depth 
of wisdom indeed ! We do not understand how 
a blade of grass grows, therefore we must deny its 
existence. 

One cannot help being amazed at the cool impu- 
dence with which these men take for granted the 
very point to be proved, and set aside as unworthy 
of serious examination, the most authentic records 
of history, simply because they do not coincide 
with their so-called philosophy; and at the cre- 
dulity with which their followers swallow these arro- 
gant assertions, as if they were self-evident truths. 
Let us look at this argument for a moment. Pagan 
religions have their fables, therefore, the Hebrew 
and Christian records are fables. In other words, 
since counterfeit bank bills exist therefore none are 
genuine. 

Skeptics offer no proofs that miracles are impos- 
sible. Yet, surely, if they imply a contradiction, 
that contradiction could be shown. The creation 
of this world is the most stupendous of all 
miracles; yet all men admit that this miracle 
occurred. The experience of man is not the limit 
of knowledge. Revelation is not impossible 
because supernatural. The world is as full of 
supernatural works as of natural. The miracles 
recorded in the strata of the earth's crust are as 
great as any recorded in the Bible. 

If, as the infidel asserts, religion and supersti- 
tion are identical, and ignorance is the cause, how 



ABSURD PHILOSOPHY OF SKEPTICS. 77 

happens it that the most intellectual and progres- 
sive nations are those which have the clearest 
religious ideas? The history of nations univers- 
ally and unequivocally declares this fact. Even 
among the so-called Christian nations of Europe 
and America we find their intellectual culture and 
general progress in exact proportion to the purity 
of their respective faiths. While we look in vain, 
among the heathen nations of Africa to find a 
single benefactor of the race, or one w r orthy to be 
distinguished among the millions of her popula- 
tion in all the countless generations past. 

In the face of all this w r e find a sort of spiritual- 
istic philosophers who tell us that we have no need 
of communication from God. Newman, in his 
Piloses of Faith, page 157, says, "Miraculous phen- 
omena will never prove the attributes of God if 
we do not know these things in and of ourselves." 
Carlyle, in his Past and Present, page 307, exclaims, 
"Revelations! inspirations! indeed! and thy own 
mighty transcendent, god-like soul, dost thou not 
call that a revelation?" Such sort of trash, which 
passes for profound philosophy, is taught in hun- 
dreds of colleges, and is echoed from thousands of 
pulpits by men who call themselves Christian 
ministers, but who could not reap their rich 
salaries if they would openly avow their atheism. 

Theodore Parker says, "If a fact depends upon 
revelation, it is not eternally true, and if it is not 
eternally true it is no truth at all." Profound 
philosophy indeed ! as if eternally true, and suffi- 
ciently known were just the same thing. To use 



78 GOSPEL PHIL SOPHY. 

a familiar illustration, because vaccination would 
always have prevented the small pox, if it had 
been known, therefore the world is under no obliga- 
tion to Jenner for informing us of the fact. New- 
man adds in another place, "I cannot receive 
instruction from another being." Again, "Neither 
God nor man can reveal any religious truths to 
our minds." Parker says, "On His (God's) word 
or as His second, be he whom he may, I can accept 
nothing" (Parker's Discourse, page 209). 

Now w^e are tempted to ask, who are these won- 
derful prodigies, so incapable of receiving instruc- 
tion from anybody? And to our amazement we 
learn that some forty or fifty years ago, they made 
their appearance among mankind as little squal- 
ling babies, without insight enough to know their 
own names or who they were, or where they came 
from, and were actually dependent on an external 
revelation, from their nurses, for sense enough to 
find their mothers' breasts. And as they grew a 
little larger, they learned the art of speaking arti- 
culate sounds, by external revelation: viz., hearing 
and repeating sounds made by others. Further, 
on a certain day they had a book revelation made 
to them, in the shape of a ten cent primer, and 
received their first lessons bv the instructions of 
another. They had not then the least "insight," 
or "spiritual faculty," or "mighty transcendent 
soul," by which they could learn all things in and 
of themselves. Faith in the word of their 
teachers was absolutely the only means by which 
they learned to speak, read and write. 



HEATHEX PHIL SOPHY IMMORAL. 79 



But this is not half their indebtedness to 
external revelation. They admit that a Feejee 
cannibal has just the same "mighty and transcen- 
dent soul" that they themselves have. How, then, 
does it happen that Newman, Emerson and 
Parker, and all their followers, who are too proud 
to be taught of God, are not assembled around a 
cannibal's oven, smearing their faces with the 
blood and feasting themselves on the limbs of 
women and children? Is it not, after all, the reve- 
lations of God and the teachings depending 
thereon that make the whole difference between 
the civilized American and his Feejee brother? 

It is amusing to see how these modern atheists, 
who reject Moses and the Prophets, as well as 
Christ and His Apostles, will permit themselves to 
go into ecstacies over the supposed wisdom of 
ancient heathen philosophers, such as Socrates, 
Plato and Aristotle. But on examination we find 
that the teachings of all these philosophers were 
immoral. The gratification of the sensual appe- 
tites was openly taught. "He may steal/' says 
Plato, "who knows how to do it." Oaths are fre- 
quent in the writings of Plato and Seneca. Ans- 
tippus taught that a wise man had a right to com- 
mit adultery. Aristotle vindicated the awful 
crimes of foeticide and infanticide. Even suicide 
was defended by Cicero and Seneca as the mark of 
a hero, and Demosthenes, Cato, Brutus and Cassius 
carried the means of self-destruction about them, 
that they might not fall alive into the hands of 
their enemies. 



80 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

The laws of the best-regulated heathen states 
commended or approved of vice. The student of 
the classics need not be reminded that the songs 
of Ovid, Horace and Virgil would not be tolerated 
in the vilest theater of New York or Chicago. The 
law r s of Sparta required theft, and the murder of 
unhealthy children. The Carthaginian law 
required human sacrifices; and in ancient Babylon, 
prostitution was compulsory on every female. 
Plato, dissatisfied with the laws of his country, 
wrote out a code of morals and laws which he 
thought much better. In this heathen Utopia the 
ideas of home and family were ignored. Marriage 
was to be unknown ; women's rights were to be 
maintained by having the women trained to war. 
Children were still to be murdered if convenience 
called for it. Little boys and girls were to be led 
to battle at a safe distance, "that the young whelps 
may early scent carnage and be inured to slaugh- 
ter." Such were the loftiest ideas of the greatest 
philosopher of antiquity. After all his specula- 
tions and writing, Plato admitted, "We cannot 
know of ourselves what petition will be pleasing 
to God, or what worship we should pay to Him ; 
but it is necessary that a lawgiver should be sent 
from heaven to instruct us. Oh, how greatly do I 
long to see that man!" He further adds, "This 
lawgiver must be more than man, that he may 
teach us things man cannot know by his own 
nature." Who has not dropped a tear over the dying 
words of Socrates? "I am going out of the world, 
and you are to continue in it, but which of us has 



CHARACTER OF HEATHEN DEITIES 81 

the better part is a secret to every one but God ! " 
Also those memorable words, "We must of neces- 
sity wait till some one, who careth for us, shall 
come and instruct us how we ought to behave 
toward God and toward man." 

Nor is it to be expected that the ancient Egyp- 
tians, Greeks, Romans and other heathen nations 
should have an exalted idea of virtue, when we 
consider the character of the gods they worshiped. 
The Egyptian deities consisted of bulls and dogs, 
cats and rats, snakes and crocodiles. When a dog 
died the whole house went into mourning and 
fasted till night. A Roman soldier who had acci- 
dentally killed a cat was punished with death {see 
Diodorus Siculus, Book T). The "great, mighty and 
transcendent soul," as Carlyle terms it, had been 
degraded so low that there is a picture in one of the 
pyramids, of an Eygptian king worshiping his 
own coffin. 

The Greeks from their intercourse with the Jews 
learned some correct religious ideas, especially 
after the conquest of Palestine by Alexander, and 
the translation of the scriptures into the Greek 
language, in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, B. 
C. 240. Before this period little sense can be found 
in their religion. Their gods were as detestable as 
they were numerous. Hesiod tells us they had 
thirty thousand. Their supreme god, Jupiter, 
was an adulterer, Mars, a murderer, Mercury, a 
thief, Bacchus, a drunkard and Venus, a prosti- 
tute. To their inferior gods they attributed other 
crimes too horrible to be mentioned. These gods 



82 GO SPEL PHIL S OPHY. 

they worshiped with ceremonies of lust, drunken- 
ness and bloodshed unfit to be described. 

If any one supposes that the condition of the 
modern heathens is any better than it was in ancient 
times, let him turn to India, where he will find 
one hundred and fifty millions of rational beings, 
possessing, as Theodore Parker says, "all needful 
spiritual light," who worship three hundred and 
thirty millions of gods in the form of hills and 
trees, rivers and rocks, elephants and tigers, mon- 
keys and rats, serpents and crocodiles, and monsters 
unlike anything in heaven or on earth. The mon- 
ster idol, Juggernaut, will do as a specimen of all. 
Around his temple countless multitudes from all 
parts of India, congregate annually, many of them 
having measured with their own bodies the whole 
distance of their weary pilgrimage. Within the 
temple, the monster idol, with its frightful grim 
and distorted visage, sits enthroned, amid thou- 
sands of massive sculptures, the representative 
emblem of that cruelty and vice which constitute 
the very essence of his worship. There in their 
sacred city of Benares may be seen at all times 
crowds of religious devotees and mendicants ; some 
remaining all day with their heads on the ground 
and their feet in the air; some cramming their 
eyes with mud and their mouths with straw; 
others with their limbs fastened in unnatural posi- 
tions, and still others with little pots of fire placed 
upon their breasts, hoping by these self-inflicted 
tortures to win the favor of the god. When the 
day of the high festival arrives, the horrid idol is 



RELIGION OF INDIA. 83 



dragged forth from his temple and mounted on a lofty 
car in the presence of hundreds of thousands who 
rend the air with their shouts, "Victory to Jugger- 
naut !" Then the officiating priest commences the 
ceremonies by a loathsome pantomimic exhibition 
accompanied by the utterance of obscene and filthy 
songs, to which the vast multitude at intervals 
respond, not in the strains of tuneful melody, but 
in loud yells of approbation. After this the ter- 
rible carnage commences; for as the car is 
dragged through the streets, the more enthusiastic 
devotees throw themselves beneath the wheels, and 
are instantly crushed to pieces, the infatuated vic- 
tims of hellish superstition. On the neighboring 
hills, the so-called sacred vultures may be seen 
feasting on these corpses and the bleak and barren 
sands on the roadside are forever whitened with 
the skulls and bones of deluded pilgrims, which 
lie bleaching in the sun {see Duff's India, page 
222). 

Of course, high-toned infidels do not consider 
themselves as debased as the natives of India. 
What then is the tendency of their teachings? 
M. Compte, a leading skeptical writer, tells us, 
"Childhood should be taught to worship idols, 
youth to believe in one God, and full grown men 
(like himself) to adore the resultant of all the forces 
of the universe, not forgetting their worthy friends the 
animals" [see Politique Positive, Vol. II. page 60). If 
this is not the teachings of idolatry, what is it ? 

Again, we find that the whole school of infidel 
writers vindicate and apologize for the very worst 



84 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

of crimes. Bradlaugh, the leading atheist of Eng- 
land, declares that, "A man is no more to be 
blamed for the indulgence of lust or anger, than he 
is for thirst or drowsiness." Hume, whose argu- 
ments are so often used by American infidels, 
taught that "adultery must be practiced by man- 
kind, if they would obtain all the advantages of 
life." Lord Chesterfield, another prominent infi- 
del, in his letters to his son (which w T ere designed 
for publication) instructs him in the art of seduc- 
tion, as part of a polite education. 

Nor is the character of infidels any better than 
their teachings. Take, for example, Thomas Paine, 
the author of the Age of Reason, whose birth-day 
is annually celebrated, and who is held up by infi- 
dels as a model for the young. A few extracts 
from a letter written to him, by his fellow r -infidel, 
and co-worker, William Carver, may not be out of 
place. 

"New Rochelle, December 2nd, 1803. 

"Mr. Thomas Paine. 

"Sir: — I received your letter dated the 25th ult. , and after 
minutely examining its contents, I found that you had taken 
to the pitiful subterfuge of lying for your defense. You say 
that you paid me four dollars per week for your board and 
lodging, during the time you were with me, prior to the first 
of June last ; which was the day that I went up. by your 
order, to take you to New York, from New Rochelle. It is 
fortunate for me that I have a living witness who saw you give 
me five guineas, and no more in my shop at your departure at 
that time. Now you have means, why do you not pay me the 
remainder? You said you would have given me more, but 
that you had no more with you at that time. You say, also, 



CHARACTER OF THOMAS PAINE, 85 

that you found your own liquors during the time you boarded 
with me ; but you should have said that you found only a 
small part of the liquor you drank during your stay with me. 
That part you purchased of John Fellows and consisted of a 
demi-john of brandy containing four gallons, and that did not 
serve you three weeks. This can be proved, and I mean not 
to say anything that I cannot prove, for I hold truth as a pre- 
cious jewel. It is a well-known fact, that you drank one quart 
of braudy per day at my expense, during the different times 
you boarded with me, besides the demi-john above men- 
tioned, and the last fourteen weeks you were sick. Was not 
this a sufficient supply for dinner and supper ? * * * * * 
"I have often wondered that a French woman and three 
children should leave France and all their connections to follow 
Thomas Paine to America. Suppose I were to go to my native 
country, England, and take another man's wife, and three 
children of his and leave my wife and children in this country ; 
what would be the natural conclusion in the minds of the 
people, but that there was some criminal connection between 
the woman and myself?" 

Such is the morality of those who denounce 
the Bible as an immoral book, and blaspheme the 
God of revelation as too vile to be reverenced or 
worshiped. Not even the friends of Paine have 
ever denied the genuineness of this and other 
letters that clearly reveal his private character. 
{For fall particulars see Discussion Between Dr. Berg 
and Mr. Barker, published by W. S. Young, Philadel- 
phia, 1854.) 

Once in modern times a nation had the oppor- 
tunity of showing the world a specimen of an infi- 
del republic. The Bible was publicly burned. 
Death was declared an eternal sleep; God was 
declared a fiction, the Sabbath was abolished and 
religious worship denounced. And what was 



86 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

the consequence ? Revolution after revolution 
occurred. Thousands, ' aye millions, of the 
sons of France were slain in the wars that 
ensued. Wave after wave of blood rolled 
through the guilty streets of Paris, and the people 
were clothed in mourning from one end of the 
land to the other. In the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence it is declared that, "Mankind are endowed 
by their Creator with certain inalienable rights." 
It is well said : the law of God is the only secure 
basis for the rights of man. 



TRUTH AND SUPERSTITION. 87 



CHAPTER VI. 



VALIDITY OT? THE NEW TESTAMENT 
AS SHOWN BY INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 



INFLUENCE OF THE SCRIPTURES THEIR AGREEMENT 

WITH SECULAR HISTORY — COLONY OF PHILIPPI 

ANCIENT COIN — CERTAINTY OF BIBLE HISTORY 

GIBBON'S TESTIMONY QUOTATIONS OF CELSUS 

— MARCION THE APOSTATE — CLASSIFICATION 

OF NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS AVOCATIONS OF 

THE APOSTLES — THEIR MANNER OF PREACHING 

THEY CHALLENGED CRITICISM DENIAL OF 

MIRACLES, A MODERN INVENTION SUFFERINGS 

OF THE APOSTLES — THEY SEALED THEIR TESTI- 
MONY WITH THEIR BLOOD. 

Faith rests upon facts, superstition on theories. 
Faith is increased by intelligence, superstition by 
ignorance, Faith courts investigation for thereby 
it is strengthened; superstition shuns it as fatal to 
its existence. Thousands can bear witness to the 
truth of the words of the Savior, "If any man 
will do His will he shall know of the doctrine, 
whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself ;" 
yet surrounded as we are by skeptics and cavilers 
of every sort, it is well that we should be prepared 
to ward off the fiery darts of the wicked, to meet 
them with their own arguments, and as the youth- 



88 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

ful David did to Goliath in days of old, cut off the 
boastful atheistic giant's head with his own sword. 

In looking over the history of the world, we find 
that those books, which collectively are called the 
scriptures, have in all ages, exerted a controlling 
influence over the destinies of mankind. Their 
teachings are perused with pleasure by the child, and 
pondered with patience by the philosopher. Their 
practical wisdom has guided the judgment of the 
wisest kings of antiquity and still teach the 
humblest peasant his duty to his neighbor. Their 
precious promises have lighted the prophetic eyes 
of old ; they are still chanted by the mother over 
her cradle, and by the orphan over the tomb. 
Here, thousands of miles distant from the places 
where they were first revealed, in a language 
unknown alike at Cumorah and Jerusalem, they 
rule as lovingly and as powerfully as in their 
native soil. 

With all these palpable facts in view, let us 
enquire into the origin of the book w r hich has 
produced such results. On looking at the Bible 
we find it composed of a number of separate 
treatises written by different authors, at various 
times ; some parts fifteen hundred years before the 
others. We find also, that it treats of the very 
beginning of the world before man was made and 
of matters of which we have no other authentic 
history. Again, we find portions which treat of 
events connected in a thousand places with the 
affairs of the Medo-Persian, Macedonian and 
Roman empires, of which we have several credible 



COLONY OF PHILIPPL 



89 



histories. Now the statements made in these works, 
so far as they refer to subjects mentioned in the 
Bible agree with the Biblical record, in eVery 
particular. Further, the inscriptions on monu- 
ments and ancient coins have often settled mooted 
questions in history and invariably have been 
found to agree with the scriptural narrative. For 
example, we are told in Acts, xiv 12, that 
Paul went "to Phiiippi, which is the chief 
city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony." 
"Now," says the infidel, "Greece at that time was a 

conquered country ; and it 
was contrary to Roman cus- 
toms to form colonies of 
Roman citizens in con- 
quered countries. Besides, 
we have no account by any 
Roman historian that Phii- 
ippi was a colony. Hence 
faosimile op coin found at we may conclude that the 
philippi. New Testament account is 

incorrect." 

At first all this seemed plausible, but a few years 
ago, a scientific association was formed to excavate 
among the ruins of eastern cities, and, among 
others, Philippi came in for a share of attention. 
In excavating around one of the ruins an ancient 
coin was unearthed, which bore upon its surface 
the effigy of a Roman emperor, surrounded by the 
following inscription: "philippi colona, Claudius 
imperator," which signifies in plain English, " Col- 
ony of Philippi, Claudius being emperor." 




90 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



Here, then, we have an ancient Roman coin bear- 
ing testimony to the truth of God's word. Further, 
by means of this coin we see a depth of meaning, 
in the last five verses of the 16th chapter of Acts, 
not at first perceptible. We are thus able to per- 
ceive, in some degree, the terror of the Philippian 
magistrates when they learned that Paul and Silas 
were also Romans. 

Day by day as scientific investigation proceeds we 
hear of additional corroborative evidence. Every 
year throws some new light on oriental manners 
and customs, while from the ruins of Nineveh and 
the sepulchres of Egypt, we receive unlooked-for 
testimonies to the minute accuracy of the inspired 
penmen. The objection that the scriptures contain 
mysteries, or statements which are difficult to be 
understood, is in reality one of the strongest proois 
of their divine source and authority. The words 
of a teacher are often misunderstood by the pupil, 
because the pupil's mind is not sufficiently devel- 
oped to comprehend them. Sometimes, indeed, 
they are entirely misapprehended for the same 
reason. So also, it is to be expected that the full 
import of the divine communications would some- 
times transcend the partially-developed intellect of 
man. The thoughts and methods of infinite wis- 
dom, expressed in the plainest of human words, 
must sometimes remain inscrutible. After all that 
can be said in reference to the weakness of the 
human medium, through which the divine will 
has been communicated, we find in the scriptures, 
a wonderful agreement with the development of 



CERTAINTY OF BIBLE HI SI ORY. 91 

truths which have come to man in the progress of 
the ages. Science has never successfully impeached 
any statement of the scriptures when rightly inter- 
preted. For example, "in the first chapter of 
Genesis we find a brief account of the creation of 
the world. Until modern times, it was the popular 
opinion that this narrative taught that the earth 
and heavens were created during an interval of 
six days of twenty-four hours each and that the 
work dates back but a few thousand years. These 
views were entertained when our Bible was trans- 
lated into English. Since that date, several sci- 
ences have sprung into existence which throw a vast 
amount of light on the history of the creation ; 
and if King James' translators had their work to 
perform to-day, they would see meanings in 
Genesis of which the world had not dreamed two 
hundred years ago ; and they would make the 
translation read a little differently, in order to make 
it agree more exactly with the original Hebrew." 
(WinchelVs Reconciliation, page 357). 

Have we not here one of the plainest admissions 
of the total apostasy of the so-called Christian 
church? Had the translators of the scriptures 
been in possession of the Holy Spirit, they would 
have had no difficulty in translating the senti- 
ments dictated by that same Spirit to the seers and 
prophets in ages past. Then, too, we would have 
had a translation which would have furnished a 
kev bv which to detect the true science from the 
false. In Genesis we have an account, to which, 
when rightly understood, the latest indications of 



92 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

science admirably conform. This circumstance 
alone, ought to be strong evidence, even to a 
skeptic, of its super-human origin. Written ages 
before the birth of modern sciences, there was the 
utmost liability for mere human authorship to 
fall into the most egregious misstatements respect- 
ing the phenomena of the natural world ; but in, 
point of fact some of its statements were so far in 
advance of the highest human knowledge in all 
the ages past, and even the boasted science of the 
nineteenth century, that we are only just begin- 
ning to understand them. 

Now, the only way for us to know anything 
beyond our eyesight, is to examine it, and gather 
testimony about it. All the blessings of education, 
civilization, law and liberty have come to us 
through the channel of abundant, reliable testi- 
mony. There is perhaps, not a man living who 
was present at the battle of Quebec, in the encamp- 
ment of Valley Forge, or heard Washington deliver 
his farewell address; yet the fact that these things 
transpired as they are related, no one will doubt. 
Few persons now living ever saw Washington, 
yet no one doubts that he lived. Certainty about 
the Bible history is just as attainable as certainty 
about American history. Let us begin at the 
present and trace the records back to the 
times in which the New Testament was written. 
We presume there are few persons as ignorant as 
an infidel lecturer we once heard, who, when asked, 
"Who compiled the scriptures?" answered, after 
some hesitation, "The American Bible Society." 



GIBBON 1 S TESTIMONY. 93 



Sometimes infidels tell us that the Emperor Con- 
stantine called various councils which compiled the 
New Testament, in the fourth century. We can 
scarcely wonder at this statement coming from those 
who look upon the Catholic church as representing 
Christianity. Constantine, the man who had 
murdered two of his sons, and strangled, while in 
a bath, the wife who had trusted in him, was surely 
a worthy representative of that church whom 
the Apostle John styles the mother of harlots and 
abominations of the earth. Still we cannot help 
asking how it was that this murderer who had 
made himself obnoxious even in pagan Rome on 
account of his crimes and his confederates 
equally wicked, was able to dictate words of such 
sublime virtue as are everywhere found in the New 
Testament. The infidel, Gibbon, attempts to 
explain, and tells us a The austerity, purity and 
zeal of the first Christians, their good discipline, 
their belief in the resurrection of the body, and 
the general judgment, and their persuasion that 
Christ and His apostles wrought miracles, had 
made a great many converts." But how came 
they to have this "belief, purity and zeal?" Just 
as if we should enquire how the Chicago fire 
originated, and you should tell us, that it burned 
very fast because it was very hot. What we 
want to know is how it happened that frivolous 
Greeks, licentious Asiatics and warlike Romans at 
once became pure and adopted the humble life 
of the early Christians? What implanted the 
belief of a judgment to come in the minds of 



94 G OSPEL PHIL SOPHY 



these heathen scoffers? Gibbon admits that, 
"Christian churches were sufficiently numerous 
in the Roman empire, to make it politic for the 
emperor to profess Christianity, and sufficiently 
powerful to secure his success." Thus according 
to the admissions of an infidel writer the Christians 
were already numerous, and the story of Constan- 
tine forming the New Testament, which had been 
read in churches and believed in for two hundred 
years, is as absurd as to hear it stated that the 
saloon keepers, prize-fighters and hoodlums of New 
York had just assembled in the Large Tabernacle 
in Salt Lake City to construct the revelations 
contained in the book of Doctrine and Covenants, 
which have been already accepted and believed 
by the Saints, for more than fifty years. 

If, on the other hand, we consult any or all of the 
hundreds of manuscripts mentioned by Mosheim, 
Neander and Lardner in their ecclesiastical 
histories we shall find that there were thousands, 
aye milions, who believed in a teacher sent from 
God who had appeared in Palestine and taught 
this religion which they had embraced, and who 
had performed wonderful miracles such as opening 
the eyes of the blind, healing lepers and raising 
the dead. They believed also that this Teacher 
had been put to death by Pontius Pilate, a Roman 
governor, had risen again from the dead, had 
spoken to hundreds of people and gone out and 
in among them for six weeks after His resurrection, 
had ascended up to heaven in the sight of num- 
bers of witnesses, and had promised that He would 



QUOTATIONS OF CELSUS. 95 



come again in the clouds of heaven to raise the 
dead and judge every man according to his works. 
Further, that before He went away he appointed 
twelve of His intimate companions to teach His 
religion to the world; that they and their followers 
did so in spite of persecutions, sufferings and 
death/with so much success, that immense num- 
bers gave up idolatry and embraced Christianity, 
braving the fury of the heathen mob, and the venge- 
ance of the Roman law. Afterwards, when 
persecution had destroyed great numbers, and 
through apostasy they had lost the divine author- 
ity and priesthood we hear of various councils 
wherein they assembled for the settling of their 
disputes. These, so far from giving authority to 
the books of the New Testament, constantly quoted 
the words of these books and referred to them for 
proof and authority. 

Again, one hundred years before the time of 
Constantine we find Celsus, a celebrated infidel 
writer and sensualist, disputing the teachings of 
the gospel because they interfered with his 
depraved appetites; and in his writings he quotes 
freely from the New Testament. So numerous are 
his quotations that from them alone, the student 
might gain all the principal facts of the Christian 
religion. As Paine quotes the New Testament to 
ridicule it, no man can deny that such a book was 
in existence at the time he wrote ; so the quotations 
of Celsus are conclusive proofs that the books he 
referred to were considered authority at the time 
he wrote. Yet in all his writings, Celsus never 



96 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

once casts a doubt on the authority of the scrip- 
tures, never questions the gospels as books of 
history nor denies the miracles recorded in them. 
It may also be added that the student who will 
examine the writings of Celsus, will cease to 
admire the professed wisdom of our modern 
skeptics. The objections made by Hume, Voltaire, 
Hobles and Paine ^are frequently only the argu- 
ments of Celsus served up in a modern style. 

Going back still another hundred years we come 
to the times of the notorious apostate, Marcion. 
Several of the apostles were alive at the time Mar- 
cion was born ; and his works date back to within 
twenty years of the latest apostolical writings. 
Having been cut off from the church, he was 
greatly enraged and said the worst he could about 
it. He traveled all the way from Sinope, on the 
Black Sea, to Rome, through Galatia, Bythynia, 
Asia-Minor, Greece and Italy, the very countries 
where the apostles preached, and the churches to 
which they wrote. He endeavored in many places 
to wrest the scriptures from their rightful meaning; 
but nowhere attempted to deny their authority 
{see Lardner, Vol. ix, page 358). Thus in the writ- 
ings of Celsus and Marcion we have the most 
indubitable evidence, even the admission of ene- 
mies, that these books were in existence and uni- 
versally received as true, by the early Christians, 
within twenty years of the time when they were 
written and by the very churches to which they 
were addressed. As printing was then unknown, 
and all important doctrines were written upon 



NEW TESTAMENT B OKS. 97 

parchment, the books of that period presented 
rather a bulky appearance. Probably for this 
reason the four books, Matthew, Mark, Luke and 
John, were commonly joined together in one 
volume and named The Gospel. The Acts of the 
Apostles, and the Epistles to the churches of Thes- 
salonica, Galatia, Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, 
Collosse, the First Epistle of Peter, the First 
Epistle of John, together with those written to 
Philemon, Timothy and Titus, comprised a second 
volume called The Apostles. The remaining books 
of the New Testament, being the last written, 
usually formed a third volume and were known as 
Apostolical Writings. This arrangement did not 
injure the meaning but rather benefitted it by 
showing the relative dates of the various books 
comprising the New Testament. 

It is evident that the gospels were not copied 
from each other, for they often relate different 
events , and when they relate the same occurrence, 
each man relates those parts of it which he saw 
himself, and which impressed him most. This 
agreement of independent writers is the inore 
remarkable, as the writers were persons of various 
degrees of education, of different professions and 
ranks of life, born in different countries and writ- 
ing from various places in Italy, Greece, Palestine 
and Assyria, without any communication with 
each other. Matthew was a tax collector in the 
province of Galilee; Mark, a Hebrew citizen of 
Jerusalem; Luke, a Greek physician of Antioch; 
James and John owned and sailed a fishing boat 



98 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

on Lake Tiberias; Jude left his home and shop 
in Galilee in order to preach the gospel ; college- 
bred Paul cast his parchments and popularity 
aside, carried his sturdy independence in his 
breast, and his sail needles in his pocket, and dic- 
tated epistles and cut out jib sails and awnings in 
the tent factory of "Aquila, Paul & Co.," at 
Corinth ; several of Paul's letters were written in 
a dungeon at Rome ; the last of Peter's is dated at 
Babylon; Matthew's gospel was penned at Jeru- 
salem, and John's gospels and epistles were writ- 
ten at Ephesus. The agreement of eight such wit- 
nesses, of different pursuits, and so scattered 
over the world, in relation to the same story is a 
convincing proof of its veracity. 

The manner in which the Apostles published 
their testimony to the world, bears every mark of 
truthfulness. Strong in the consciousness of right ? 
they dared to assert that Jesus had risen from the 
dead, in the very streets of the city where he was 
crucified — in the temple, the most public place of 
resort of the Jews who saw him crucified — and to 
the teeth of the very men who put him to death. 
"The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye 
slew and hung on a tree. Him that God exalted 
with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, 
to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins. 
And we are His witnesses of these things, and so 
is also the Holy Ghost which God hath given to 
them that obey him" (Acts, v, 30). Had Paul been 
conscious that he was relating falsehood, would he 
have dared to appeal to the judge, before whom he 



APOSTLES' MANNER OF PREACHING. 99 

was on trial for his life, as one who knew the 
notoriety of these facts? "For the king knoweth 
of these things, before whom also I speak freely: 
for I am persuaded that none of these things 
are hidden from him ; for this thing was not done 
in a corner" (Acts xxvi, 26). 

The boldness of their preaching, however, is 
little, compared with the boldness of their design, 
which was nothing less than to convert the world. 
The heathens never dreamed of such a thing. The 
Jews were so indignant at the project, that when 
Paul hinted it to them, they cried, "Away with 
such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he 
should live" (Acts zxii, 22). 

It is remarkable, that while in addressing the 
Saints, the apostles rarely allude to their power of 
working miracles (fourteen of the epistles make no 
allusion to apostolic miracles), but dwell on the 
subject of a holy life. Yet they never hesitate to 
confront a Simon Magus, or a schismatical church 
at Corinth, or a persecuting high priest and san- 
hedrim with this power of the Holy Ghost. 

Read the story of the miraculous healing of the 
poor, lame beggar, who laid at the gate of the 
temple, as recorded in the third and fourth chap- 
ters of Acts. Who ever heard of an impostor 
standing up before the tribunal of his judges, and 
pleading his cause in the following manner, "If 
we this day be examined of the good deed done 
unto the impotent man, by what means he is made 
whole, be it known unto you all, and to all the 
people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ 



100 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised 
from the dead, even by Him doeth this man stand 
before you whole." Such an appeal was unanswer- 
able. "Beholding the man who was healed stand- 
ing with them, they could say nothing against it." 
Nay, they were compelled to acknowledge, "That 
indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them 
is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem — 
we cannot deny it." 

The denial of the miracles of the gospel is a 
modern invention. The Scribes and priests, 
emperors and philosophers of the first century, 
who had the best opportunity of proving their 
falsehood, were unable to do so. Why, then, it 
may be asked, did they not all become Christians? 
Because a miracle cannot convert a man against 
his will. The religion of the gospel is not merely 
a belief in miracles, but the love of Christ and a 
life in conformity with His commands. 

The labors and sufferings of the apostles them- 
selves furnish strong proof of the facts of gospel 
history. To preach another king, one Jesus, to the 
Romans, was to bring down the power of the 
empire upon them. Nothing could be more absurd 
in the eyes of Grecian philosophers, than to speak 
of the resurrection of the body. Nor could any 
plan be devised more certain to arouse the fury of 
the pagan priesthood than to denounce that by 
which they had their wealth. The most degraded 
wretch who perishes on the scaffold is not more 
contemptible in our eyes than the crucified 
Redeemer was to the Jewish and Roman peoples. 



SUFFERINGS OF THE APOSTLES. 101 

What, then, could induce any men in their senses 
to stem the tide of such opposition if they were 
manufacturing falsehoods to gain popularity and 
power. The religion they preached was not 
adapted to please sensual men ; even infidels admit 
that they preached a pure morality. No provision 
was made for making money by their preaching. 
One of their first acts was to cause the church to 
elect deacons who might manage its money mat- 
ters, and allow the apostles to give themselves 
wholly to prayer and the ministry of the word 
(Acts vi, 2-5). Twenty-five years after they could 
appeal to the world that, "Even to this present 
hour, we (the apostles), both hunger, and thirst, 
and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no cer- 
tain dwelling-place, and labor, working with our 
hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, 
we suffer it : being defamed, we intreat : we are made 
as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of 
all things unto thisday" (I. Cor. iv, 11-13). 

The New Testament opens with the story of the 
Savior's birth in a stable, with the manger for his 
cradle, and one of its last pictures, is that of His 
venerable apostle chained in a dungeon, and beg- 
ging his friend to bring his old cloak from Troas, 
and to do his diligence to come before Winter 
(II. Tim. iv chap.). 

Unpopular and penniless, if the gospel story were 
not true, how could it have had preachers? When 
Paul was changed from a persecutor to a disciple, 
behold the prospect the Savior presents to him, " I 
will show him how great things he must suffer for my 



102 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



sake" Paul declares, "The Holy Ghost testifieth 
that in every cit}^ bonds and afflictions abide me. 
Yet none of these things move me, neither count 
I my life dear unto myself, so that I may finish 
my course with joy" (Acts xx> 23, 24). In another 
place he adds, "Of the Jews five times received I 
forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with 
rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered ship- 
wreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep : 
in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils 
of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in 
perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in 
perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in 
perils among false brethren, in weariness and pain- 
fulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, 
in cold and nakedness" (II. Cot. xi, 24-27). 

Man can give no higher proof of his veracity, 
save to seal his testimony with his blood. This 
the apostles did. All, except John, suffered mar- 
tyrdom for the truth of the gospel. 



PA UL S HAND WRITING. 103 



CHAPTER VII. 



NEW TESTAMENT FACTS CORROBOR- 
ATED BY SECULAR WRITERS. 



TERTULIAN ? S WORKS EXTRACT FROM TACITUS 

VALUE OF COTEMPORARY CORRESPONDENCE 

PLINY'S LETTER PROOF OF THE SAINTS* MOR- 
ALITY — GOSPEL DISTINCTIVE FROM ALL OTHER 

RELIGIONS NO OTHER SYSTEM DEPENDS UPON 

SIMILAR INFLUENCES. 

In a former chapter was shown some of the 
internal evidences of the validity of the New Tes- 
tament. By continuing our investigations we find 
other and valuable proofs of its authenticity. 
There was no printing in those days ; therefore the 
people to whom the gospels and epistles were 
addressed, had the opportunity of knowing by the 
handwriting whether these documents were genu- 
ine or not. For example, Paul in his second 
epistle to the Thessalonians, says: "The saluta- 
tion of Paul with my own hand, which is the 
token in every epistle: so I write. The grace of 
our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." 
These words show indeed the heart of an apostle ; 
but what a business man would most appreciate is 
the fact how greatly these few lines add to the 



104 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

security against forgery. It is a hard thing to 
forge a signature, but give a business man two 
lines of any man's writing besides that, and he is 
perfectly secure against imposition. The churches 
to whom the epistles were written and to whom 
the gospels were delivered consisted largely of 
business men, merchants, traders, city chamber- 
lains and officers of Caesar's household. Does 
any one think that such men could not tell the 
handwriting of the apostle who had lived among 
them for years or that they cared less for the docu- 
ments of the gospel, for which they risked their 
lives, than we would care about the genuineness 
of a ten dollar check? Tertulian, who lived from 
A. D. 145 to 222, was one of the most learned men 
of that age. He was well versed in Roman law, 
in ancient philosophy, history and poetry. He had 
been brought up a heathen, and was not therefore 
likely to favor the teachings of the apostles 
without due investigation. His writings are 
interesting, throwing much light on the circum- 
stances and social questions of that age. He 
traveled extensively among the churches which 
the apostles had planted and claims to have seen 
the original copies of Matthew and John and the 
epistles written to the churches at Rome, Corinth, 
Thessalonica, Ephesus and Philippi, and refers 
skeptics to the places where these documents could 
be found. That these writings contained the same 
words as are in our present New Testament is 
evident from the numerous quotations in Teri Li- 
lian's works. 



MS. COPIES OF NEW TESTAMENT. 105 

In the British and other museums may be found 
thousands of manuscripts on every conceivable 
subject embracing every age for the past sixteen 
hundred years and even some still earlier. Among 
these manuscripts are over two thousand copies of 
the New Testament, some of them dating back to 
apostolic times. These manuscripts have been 
scrutinized by the most critical scholars; yet the 
result of this examination is merely the suggestion 
of thirteen unimportant alterations in the seven 
thousand nine hundred and fifty-nine verses of 
the New Testament. This is a fact utterly 
unexampled in the history of manuscripts. We 
are thus, by the special providence of God, as 
undoubtedly in possession of genuine copies of 
the gospels and epistles, some of which were writ- 
ten while the companions of the Savior were still 
living and the divine authority and Priesthood 
were still upon the earth, as we are of genuine 
copies of the Constitution of the United States 
and of the Declaration of Independence. 

There is no history so trustworthy as that 
prepared by cotemporary writers, especially by 
those who have themselves been actively engaged 
in the events which they relate. Such history 
never loses its interest, nor does the lapse of ages, 
in the least degree, impair its credibility. While 
the documents can be preserved, Xenophon's 
"Retreat of the Ten Thousand," Wellington's 
dispatches, and Washington's letters to Congress, 
will be as trustworthy as on the day they were 
written. Of the great facts described in these 

7 



1 06 G OSPEL PHIL SOPHY. 

documents addressed to their cotemporaries, able 
at a glance to detect a falsehood, we never entertain 
the least suspicion. Many such historical allu- 
sions might be quoted. 

We have selected one from the well-known works 
of Tacitus, the celebrated Roman historian, who 
lived between A. D. 60 and 120, and wrote a 
history of Rome up to the reign of the emperor 
Trajan. Concerning this extract from the history 
of Tacitus the infidel, Gibbon, says, "The most 
skeptical criticism is obliged to respect the truth 
of this important fact and the integrity of this 
important passage of Tacitus/' After relating 
the burning of the city of Rome by order of Nero, 
and his attempt to transfer the odium of it to the 
Christians, Tacitus says : 

c 'The author of that name was Christ, who in the reign of 
Tiberius, was put to death as a criminal, under the procurator 
Pontius Pilate. But this pestilent superstition, checked for 
a while, broke out afresh and spread not only over Judea, 
where the evil originated, but also in Rome, where all that is 
evil on the earth finds its way, and is practiced. At first, 
those only were apprehended who confessed themselves of 
that sect; afterwards, a vast multitude were discovered by 
them ; all of whom were condemned, not so much for the 
crime of the burning of the city, as for their enmity to man- 
kind. Their executions were so contrived as to expose them 
to derision and contempt. Some were covered over with the 
skins of wild beasts, that they might be torn to pieces by 
dogs ; some were crucified ; while others having been daubed 
over with combustible materials, were set up for lights in the 
night time and thus burned to death. For these spectacles 
Nero gave his own gardens, and, at the same time, exhibited 
there the diversions of the circus; sometimes standing in the 
crowd as a spectator, in the habit of a charioteer, and, at 



COTEMPORAR Y CORRESPONDENCE. 107 

other times driving a chariot himself ; until at length these 
men, though really criminal and deserving of exemplary punish- 
ment, began to be commiserated as people who were destroyed, 
not out of regard to the public welfare, but only to gratify the 
cruelty of one man." 

Now let the reader take up the New Testament 
and read the last six chapters of Acts and the 
letters of Paul to Philemon, Titus and the second 
to Timothy. These letters were written when the 
aged prisoner was ready to be martyred, and the time 
of his departure was at hand. Then let the reader 
form his opinion of the origin and nature of that 
faith which enabled Paul to say, "None of these 
things move me, neither count I my life dear 
unto me, that I may finish my course with joy, 
and the testimony which I have received of the 
Lord Jesus." 

There is still another kind of cotemporary 
history, which does not even propose to relate 
history at all; but is for that very reason entirely 
removed from the suspicion of making a false 
statement. By this is meant cotemporary cor- 
respondence. The undersigned and incidental 
use of a name, a date or a quotation often flashes 
conviction upon the reader's mind in the most 
forcible manner. If we have the private letters 
of celebrated men laid before us, we are enabled 
to look right into them, and see their true charac- 
ters. Thus Macaulay exhibits to the world the 
proud, lying, stupid tyrant King, James, displayed 
in his own letters. Thus the celebrated Voltaire 
records himself an adulterer, and begs his friend 



108 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

D'Alembert to lie for him, and his friend replies 
that he has done so. Thus the correspondence of 
Thomas Paine exhibits him drinking a quart of 
brand}' daily at his friend's expense and refusing 
to pay his bill for boarding. In the unguarded 
freedom of confidential correspondence the veil is 
taken from the heart. We see men as they are. 
The true man stands out in his native dignity and 
the gilding is rubbed off the hypocrite. Give to 
the world their letters, and no just person would 
hesitate to pronounce Hume a sensualist, or Was- 
hington, "the noblest work of God," an honest 
man. 

Now we are in possession of this same kind of 
indisputable evidence concerning the great facts 
of the New Testament. From the abundant 
notices of the faith, teachings and practices of the 
early saints, which are to be found in the works 
of cotemporaneous writers, historians and poets, 
philosophers and magistrates, Jewish, Christian 
and heathen; it may be well to select one, to 
corroborate and compare with the statements of 
the New Testament. Lest we should be accused 
of partiality, let us take the celebrated letter of 
Pliny to Trajan. This letter is utterly undeniable 
and admitted by the most skeptical to be beyond 
suspicion. Pliny, the younger, was born A. D. 
61. He lived and died a pagan. In A. D. 106, 
when a little more than forty-five years of age, he 
was appointed by the emperor Trajan to be 
governor of the Roman provinces of Pontus and 
Bi thy nia — a vast tract of Asia-Minor, in which 






PL TNT S LETTER. 109 

were situated the cities and churches of Ephesus, 
Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis and Philadel- 
phia. The Epistles of Peter "to the strangers 
scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia 
Asia, and Bithynia, brings us to the same moun- 
tainous region. Pliny, having taken up his 
residence in Ephesus, wrote the following letter to 
the Roman emperor : 

"Pliny to the Emperor Trajan wishes health and happiness. 

u It is lny constant custom, sire, to refer myself to you in 
all matters concerning which I have any doubt. For who 
can better direct me when I hesitate, or instruct me when I am 
ignorant ? I have never been present at any trials of Christians, 
so that I know not well what is the subject matter of punish- 
ment, or of inquiry, or what strictures ought to be used in 
either. Nor have I been a little perplexed to determine 
whether any difference ought to be made upon account of age, 
or whether the young and tender, and the full-grown and 
robust, ought to be treated all alike ; whether repentance 
should entitle to pardon, or whether all who have once been 
Christians ought to be punished though they are now no 
longer so. 

1 'In the meantime I have taken this course with all who 
have been brought before me, and have been accused as 
Christians. 1 have put the question to them whether they 
were Christians. Upon their confessing to me that they were, 
I repeated the question a second and a third time, threatening 
also to punish them with death. Such as still persisted, I 
ordered away to be punished ; for it was no doubt with me, 
whatever might be the nature of their opinion, that contumacy 
and inflexible obstinacy ought to be punished. There were 
others of the same infatuation, whom, because they are Roman 
citizens, I have noted down to be sent to the city (Rome). 

"In a short time, -the crime spreading itself even while under 
persecutions, as is usual in such cases, divers sorts of people 
came in my way. And information was presented to me, 



110 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

without mentioning the author, containing the names of many 
persons, who, upon examination denied that they were 
Christians, or had ever been so ; who repeated after me an 
invocation to the gods, and with wine and frankincense made 
supplication to your image, which, for that purpose, I have 
caused to be brought and set before them, together with the 
statues of the deities. Moreover they reviled the name of 
Christ. None of which things, as is said, they who are really 
Christians can by any means be compelled to do. These, 
therefore, I thought proper to discharge. 

"Others were named by an informer, who at first confessed 
themselves Christians, and afterwards denied it. The rest 
said they had been Christians, but had left them; some threejyears 
ago, some longer, and one or more above twenty years. They 
all worshiped your image, and the statues of the gods ; these 
also reviled Christ. They affirmed that the whole of their 
fault or error lay in this: that they were wont to meet together, 
on a stated day before it was light, and sing among themselves 
alternately, a hymn to Christ as a G-od and bind themselves 
by a sacrament, not to the commission of any wickedness, but 
not to be guilty of theft, or robbery, or adultery; never to 
falsify their word nor to deny a pledge committed to them 
when called upon to return it. When these things were 
performed, it was their custom to separate, and then to come 
together again to a meal which they ate in common, without 
any disorder ; but this they had forborne since the publication 
of my edict, by which, according to your command, I 
prohibited assemblies. After receiving this account, I judged 
it the more necessary to examine two maid servants, who 
were called ministers, by torture. But I have discovered 
nothing besides a bad and excessive superstition. 

''Suspending, therefore, all judicial proceedings, I have 
recourse to you for advice ; for it has appeared to me a matter 
highly deserving consideration especially upon account of the 
great number of persons who are in danger of suffering. For 
many of all ages and every rank, of both sexes likewise, are 
accused, and will be accused. Nor has the contagion of this 
superstition seized cities only, but the lesser towns also, and 



1RAJAN' S REPLY. Ill 

the open country. Nevertheless, it seems that it may oe 
restrained and arrested. It is certain that the temples which 
were almost forsaken, begin to be frequented. And the sacred 
solemnities, after a long intermission, are revived. Victims, 
likewise, are everywhere brought up, whereas, for some time , 
there were few purchasers. Whence, it is easy to imagine, 
what numbers of men might be reclaimed, if pardon were 
granted to those who shall repent. ' ' 

To this the Emperor Trajan replied: 

u Trajan to Pliny wisheth health and happiness : 
" You have taken the right course, my Pliny, in your proceed- 
ings with those who have been brought before you as 
Christians ; for it is impossible to establish any one rule that 
shall hold universally. They are not to be satight after. If 
any are brought before you, and are convicted, they ought to 
be punished. However, he that denies his being a Christian, 
and makes it evident in fact, that is, by supplication to our 
gods, though he be suspected to have been so formerly, let 
him be pardoned upon repentance. But in no case of any crime 
whatever, may a bill of information be received without being 
signed by him who presents it. For that would be a danger- 
ous precedent, and unworthy of my government." 

Now let us read the First General Epistle of 
Peter, the First General Epistle of John, and the 
second and third chapters of Revelation and we 
will be able to see the force of the various allu- 
sions, to the numbers, doctrines, morals and perse- 
cutions of the Saints as mentioned in this letter. 
The doctrines of the Christian faith then are not 
the gradual growth of centuries, as the infidel 
would make us believe. On the other hand the 
primitive churches possessed a perfection of doctrine 
and organization unknown to the so-called Chris- 
tian churches of the present day. In the lifetime 



112 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

of those who had seen the Savior crucified, and in 
countries a thousand miles distant from Jerusalem, 
we find the Saints scattered over Pontus, Galatia, 
Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, as well as in the 
world's proud capital, the city of Rome. In this 
letter also we have the testimony of apostates, 
eager to save their lives by giving such information 
as they knew would be acceptable to the persecuting 
governor, the testimony of the two servants under 
torture, and the unwilling, yet express testimony ; 
of their torturer, that ail his cruel ingenuity could 
discover nothing worse than what he called "a bad 
and excessive superstition.'' Now,w T hat was it that 
this heathen governor called a Superstition ?" 
Why simply that they bound themselves by the 
most solemn religious services, not to be guilty of 
theft, robbery or adultery ; not to falsify their word 
nor deny a pledge committed to them ; and when 
a statue of the emperor was presented to them 
they refused to make supplication to it. For this 
refusal, and this alone, he ordered them away to 
death. And as these martyrs went away to torture 
and to death, may they not have heard tingling in 
their ears the words of Peter which had been 
written to them a few years previous: "Beloved, 
think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that 
is to try you, as though some strange thing hap- 
pened unto you. But let none of you suffer as a 
murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil-doer, or as a 
busybody in other men's matters" (I. Peter iv, 12-15). 
Pliny says that there were apostates twenty years 
previous, that is in the year 80. Now does not 



GOSPEL UNLIKE OTHER RELIGIONS. 113 

that exactly coincide with what John wrote to 
them in the year 90 : "They went out from us but 
they were not of us, for if they had been of us, 
they would no doubt have continued with us" 
(L John ii. 19). So Pliny speaks of the apostates, 
"They all worshiped yom: image and statues of the 
gods; these also reviled Christ. None of which 
things, as is said, they who are really Christians 
can by any means be compelled to do." What 
was it that enabled the early Saints of all ranks 
and all ages, of both sexes likewise, to joyfully 
meet death in its most horrid forms? It was the 
power of truth — it was the power of God. 

Now, the grand idea that strikes us in the testi- 
mony of the Saints, both of primitive and modern 
times, is that it stands out utterly different from all 
other religions. There is nothing in the world like 
it, not even its counterfeits. The great central 
fact of Christianity — that Christ died for our sins, 
and rose again from the dead — stands absolutely 
alone in the history of religions. The priests of 
Baal, Brahma or Jupiter never dreamed of such # a 
thing. Confucius, Buddha or Zoroaster never 
attained to such sublime ideas: Our modern 
positivists and spiritualists perceiving the grand- 
eur of this doctrine, have vainly attempted to 
destroy this, the key-stone of the gospel arch. 

There is no instance in the whole world's history 
of any other religion ever producing the same 
effects; no other instance of men destitute of 
wealth, arms, power and learning, converting 
multitudes of lying, lustful, murdering idolators 



114 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

into honest, peaceable Christians, simply by prayer 
and preaching. When the skeptic tells us of the 
rapid spread of impostures which enlist disciples 
by promising free license to lust, robbery and 
murder, and retain them by the terror of scimetar 
and rifle ball, he simply insults our common sense, 
by ignoring the difference between the degrading 
practices of vice, and the ennobling principles of 
virtue. The gospel stands alone in its doctrines, 
singular in its operation, unequalled in its success. 



«» ••• ■» 



CHAPTER VIII. 



HISTORICAL GLIMPSES OF NEW 
TESTAMENT TIMES. 



PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF OUR SAVIOR — BY MARCUS 

BY JOSEPHUS — CONDITION OF THE WORLD AT 

—THE BIRTH OF CHRIST — INFLUENCE OF JUDAISM 
* HEATHEN TRADITIONS CONCERNING THE SAVIOR'S 
ADVENT — CHARACTER OF BARNABAS — APPEAR- 
ANCE AND CHARACTER OF PAUL — PETER, THE 
LEADER OF THE APOSTLES — CHARACTER OF JOHN 
AND JAMES — STATEMENT CONCERNING MARY — 
HISTORY EPITOMIZED IN THE GOSPELS — DESCRIP- 
TION OF THE CATACOMBS — INSCRIPTIONS OF 
THEM. 

The living or written testimony of those who 
have been actively engaged in the great latter-day 



CORROBORATIVE TESTIMONY. 115 

work will ever have a weight far superior to any 
given by inimical or disinterested parties. Still, 
the descriptions given and the historical facts and 
incidents related by such persons are often highly 
interesting as furnishing glimpses of scenes and 
facts unmentioned by more prominent actors. For 
example, the discourse delivered by Thomas L. 
Kane before the Historical Society of Pennsyl- 
vania, throws a flood of light upon the manners 
and customs of the Latter-day Saints and the 
scenes attending their expulsion from Nauvoo, 
which no history of the Church has exceeded; and 
this is all the more valuable as it corroborates 
many of the statements made by the Saints. So 
in like manner there are many references made 
by secular writers which throw light on New Tes- 
tament history, and by this light we see a new 
beauty and force in the language of the inspired 
writers. 

No man of sense will for a moment hesitate to 
acknowledge the superiority of the narratives 
written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, to any 
merely human composition. The biographies of 
the Savior, written by Fleetwood and others bear 
no comparison to the simple, yet sublime records 
of the evangelists. But it does not militats against 
the authority of the scriptures to read a descrip- 
tion of the personal appearance of the Savior as 
described by Marcus, a Roman lawyer who resided 
at Jerusalem, and still preserved in the works of 
Origen : 



116 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

"Jesus of Nazareth, sometimes called the Galilean, was a 
most remarkable person. In stature He was above the medium 
hight, straight and tall. His complexion was fair : His hair 
was of a brown color, and fell in heavy curls upon His shoul- 
ders. His eyes were blue, and possessed such a penetrating 
power that no man could meet His gaze. His beard was of a 
deep wine color, fine and full : it is said that He was never 
shaved. His countenance was majestic, calm and serene, 
bearing the impress of wisdom, justice and love." 

Again, we have the testimony of Josephus, the 
celebrated Jewish historian who flourished between 
the thirty-seventh and ninety-eighth year of the 
Christian era. He was a Jewish priest and had no 
connection with the early saints; yet in the 
History of the Antiquities of the Jews, Book xviii, he 
declares : 

"Now there was about this time, Jesus, a wise man, if it 
be lawful to call Him a man, for He was a doer of wonderful 
works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with plea- 
sure. He drew over to Him, both many of the Jews, and many 
of the Gentiles. He was the Christ. And when Pilate, at the 
suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned 
Him to the cross, those that loved Him at the first, did not 
forsake Him, for He appeared to them alive on the third day: 
as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand 
other wonderful things concerning Him. And the tribe of 
Christians, so named from Him, are not extinct at this day." 

In the time of Christ, Palestine was in the very 
center of the then known world. To the north 
and north-east lay the decaying remnants of the 
Medo-Persian and still more ancient Babylonian 
and Assyrian empires; on the east were the power- 
ful tribes of Arabia, who, fearless of any foreign 
power, had built their capital in the rugged defiles 



DISPERSION OF THE JEWS. 117 

of Arabia-Petrea, the magnificent ruins of which 
astonish the travelers of the present day. 

On the south lay Egypt reposing in gloomy 
grandeur and already boasting a hoary antiquity ; 
yet even this ancient civilization was to a great 
extent indebted to the founders of the Jewish com- 
monwealth. On the west lay the classic countries 
of Greece and Italy. 

As is well known, after the Babylonish captivity, 
the Jews were widely scattered. Comparatively 
few of them availed themselves of the permission 
granted by Cyrus, to return to Palestine. The 
majority remained in Babylonia or wandered into 
other lands. In Alexandria, for example, at the 
time of Christ, fully one-half the inhabitants were 
Jews, who by trading had become rich and power- 
ful. At that time the coasts of Arabia and even 
India were visited by Jewish merchants. In Asia 
Minor and Greece there was scarcely a town with- 
out its Jewish synagogue. In Rome the Jews pos- 
sessed the greater part of the Trastevere, or right 
bank of the Tiber. From the time of Julius Csesar 
they were allowed to build synagogues and granted 
many other privileges. All these Jews who lived 
outside of Palestine and formed a majority of the 
whole nation were commonly called the Dispersion. 
It was this class of persons to which the Jews 
referred, when in speaking of Christ, they said, 
"Will He go unto the dispersed among the Gen- 
tiles and teach the Gentiles?" (John vii, 25). Yet 
these Jews still considered Jerusalem as their 
center, regarded the Sanhedrim (or high council) 



118 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

as their highest church court, sent yearly gifts of 
money and sacrifices to the temple, and visited it 
from time to time at the great festivals. 

It is easy to see how this state of things aided 
the spread of the gospel. The feasts of the Pas- 
over and of Pentecost brought many of these 
dispersed Jews from the neighboring countries to 
Jerusalem. Thus thousands, w T ho were not resi- 
dents of Palestine, had an opportunity at these 
yearly feasts to become acquainted with the teach- 
ings and miracles of Jesus. It was also at the 
time of the great feast of the Passover, that the 
crucifixion took place. Fifty days later was the 
feast of Pentecost at which time occurred those 
wonderful events recorded in the second chapter 
of Acts. 

Thus, we perceive, how it was that people 
from various nations had gathered together; 
and how important the gift of tongues whereby 
each could hear in his own language the wonderful 
works of God. (See Acts ii, 5, 9-11.) 

These men on their return carried the news of 
Christianity to their homes. Then again the 
apostles in their missionary travels found syna- 
gogues in all the principal towns and cities ; like- 
wise, devout persons who were looking forward to 
the advent of the Messiah and the redemption of 
Israel. Of these might be mentioned Dorcas, and 
Cornelius, (Acts ix, 10.) Lydia (Acts xvi, 14.), 
Aquilla and Priscilla, (Acts xviii), Eunice and 
Lois, the mother and grandmother of Timothy, 
and many others. 



INFL UENCE OF JUDAISM. 1 1 9 

Every synagogue was, as it were, a missionary 
station in readiness for them with friends and 
inquirers already there to welcome them. The 
influence of the Jews had helped also to undermine 
heathenism and thus to prepare the ground for 
Christianity. So much was this the case that the 
Roman philosopher, Seneca, in speaking of the 
Jews, says, "The conquered have given laws to the 
conquerors." Josephus, in his Antiquities, Book 
18, says, "Many of the Jews held high offices, and 
lived at the courts of princes. Even the empress 
Poppea, wife of Nero was a proselyte to Judaism." 
In his autobiography, he relates that, when in 
Rome, he made the acquaintance of this empress 
through a Jewish favorite of Nero, and at once 
received from her the release of some imprisoned 
Jewish priests together with large presents. Through 
her influence also was due much of that bitterness 
which characterized the persecutions of the saints 
in the reign of Nero. 

Juvenal, a Latin poet, ridicules the prevalence 
of Jewish customs; also many of the Greeks, 
following the teachings of Socrates, believed in the 
existence of an "unknown God." It is in the very 
nature of man to believe in something. When 
the absurdities of heathenism became apparent, 
men fell into other superstitions. More and more 
was felt the want of a true religion. Even the 
Samaritans who were so carried away by the 
sorceries of Simon Magus, as to call him "the 
great power of God," readily received the preach- 
ing of the gospel. (Acts viii, 5.) So also Sergius 



120 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

Paulus, who, dissatisfied with heathenism, had 
with him the Jewish sorcerer and false prophet 
Ely mas, was won to the Christian faith by the 
preaching of Paul (Acts ziii, 6-11). Indeed the 
best feature of that age was a strong religious 
yearning. Expectations of a coming Messiah, in 
various forms and degrees of clearness, were at 
that time, by the political collision of the nations 
and by their intellectual and religious contact, 
spread over all the nations ; and, like the first red 
streaks upon the horizon, announced the approach 
of day. The Persians were looking for their 
Sosiosch, who should conquer Ahriman and his 
kingdom of darkness. The Chinese sage, Confucius, 
pointed his diciples to a Holy One who should 
appear in the west. The wise men who came to 
worship the new-born king of the Jews, we must 
look upon as representatives of the Messiaic hopes 
of oriental heathens. 

The western nations, on the contrary, looked 
toward the east for the dawn of a better day. 
The Roman historians, Suetonius and Tacitus, 
both speak of a current saying in the Roman 
empire, that in the east, and more particularly in 
Judea, a new universal empire would soon be set up. 

Thus, in a time, the like of which history before 
or since has never seen, appeared the Savior of 
men. Amid the dying and decaying forms of 
ancient society, while those things that had been 
the objects of man's enthusiastic love were wither- 
ing away, Christ came that through Him humanity 
should receive a new, youthful life. 



CHARACTER OF BARNABAS. 121 

Impenitent Judaism, it is true, still wanders, 
ghost like through all ages and countries : but only 
as an incontrovertible living witness of the divinity 
of the Christian religion. 

The Jews who were scattered through the various 
countries of the east came in contact with the 
manners and customs of those various countries, 
and this had a tendency to break down Jewish 
exclusiveness and prepare the minds of many for 
broader and more liberal views. Hence we find 
that several of the most useful men of the apostolic 
church, such as Stephen, the martyr, Philip, the 
deacon, Paul and Barnabas were of this class. 
Barnabas was, indeed one, of the most remarkable 
men of the age in which he lived. He was born 
in the island of Cyprus, but removed to Jerusalem 
where he became one of the active members of 
the apostolic church. 

After the martyrdom of Stephen and in conse- 
quence of the persecution which followed, some of 
the disciples were scattered as far as Antioch, 
whither Barnabas was sent to organize a church, 
and here the disciples first received the name of 
Christians. (Acts xi, 26.) It was Barnabas who 
first introduced Paul to the rest of the apostles 
and removed the mistrust which was felt towards 
him. Afterwards, when Paul was living a retired 
life in his native city of Tarsus, Barnabas sought 
him out and brought him to Antioch. To win 
over this great reticent and susceptible soul, to 
labor with him and even to take a subordinate 
place under him, indicate both wisdom and 

7* 



122 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

humanity; and this is what Barnabas did for 
Paul. 

Saul, afterwards Latinized into Paul, was born 
at Tarsus in Cilicia, in the tenth or twelfth year 
of our era. Paul's father early intended that he 
should become a religious teacher, but, according 
to the customs of that age, taught him a trade 
also, by which he afterwards supported himself 
without becoming a burden to the church. He 
came to Jerusalem at an early age and entered the 
school of Gamaliel the elder. This Gamaliel was 
one of the most learned men in Jerusalem, and the 
youthful Paul soon became a leader in society. 
This is evident from the position he held at the 
death of Stephen. Paul was short in stature, 
somewhat stooping and at the middle age his hair 
was thin, inclining to baldness. His countenance 
was pale and half hidden by a dark beard. His 
nose was aquiline, his eyes piercing and his 
eyebrows heavy. It is said that he possessed one 
of those strange visages which though plain, yet, 
when lighted up by emotion, assumes a deep 
brilliancy and grandeur. Paul was a man of 
great politeness and exquisite manners. His 
letters show that he was a man of rare intelligence, 
who formed for his lofty sentiments, expressions 
of great beauty. No correspondence exhibits 
more careful attention, finer shades of meaning 
or more amiable pleasantries. What animation ! 
What a wealth of charming sayings! What 
simplicity ! It is easy to see that his character 
is that of a polite, earnest and affectionate man. 



CHARACTER OF PETER. 123 

Simon, or Peter, as he was afterwards called, was 
a son of the fisherman, Jonas. He resided at 
Capernaum, on the shore of the sea of Galilee, 
where he followed his father's occupation. His 
brother, Andrew, who had been a disciple of John 
the Baptist, first brought him to Jesus by whom 
he was called to be a fisher of men. He was one 
of the witnesses of the transfiguration on Mount 
Tabor, and the agony of the Savior in the garden 
of Gethsemane. He was evidently the leader of 
the ancient apostles. In the four places where a 
list of the twelve is given, he is invariably placed 
at the beginning'; and in many other places he is 
mentioned as the leading speaker. In Peter's 
character we have a remarkable combination of 
great natural talents and virtues, with peculiar 
weaknesses. This apostle was distinguished from 
the other eleven by an ardent, impulsive, sanguine 
temperament, and an open, shrewd, practical 
nature. He was always ready to speak out his 
mind, to resolve and to act. His excitable, impuls- 
ive disposition led him sometimes to over-estimate 
his powers, to trust too much to himself, and, in 
the hour of danger, to yield to opposite impres- 
sions. Thus we find that, in spite of his usual 
firmness and joy in confessing his faith, he actu- 
ally denied the Savior when arraigned in the 
palace of Caiphas. In learning he was inferior to 
Paul, and in loving character, to John ; but he 
possessed, in an eminent degree, the gift of inspir- 
ation which enabled him to act with promptness 
and decision. 



124 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY, 

The apostle and evangelist, John, was the son of 
Zebedee, and the brother of the elder James m His 
mother was one of the women who supported Jesus 
with their property, and brought spices to embalm 
Him. John himself owned a house in Jerusalem, 
into which he received the mother of the Savior 
after the crucifixion. He was the only one of the 
apostles who was present at the cross, and to him 
Jesus committed the care of his mother. (John 
xix, 26, 27.) Mcephorus states that Mary contin- 
ued to live with John until her death, which occur- 
red about fourteen years after the crucifixion. 
After this, John went to preside over the church 
at Ephesus. Here he wrote the gospel and epistle 
that bear his name. In the reign of Domitian, 
about the year 84, he was called to Rome where he 
was condemned to be put to death by being thrust 
into a caldron of boiling oil. From this he mirac- 
ulously escaped, even as the three Hebrews who 
were cast into the fiery furnace. Afterwards he 
was banished to the solitary, rocky island, Patmos, 
where he received that wonderful prophetic history 
of the conflicts and conquests of the church, which 
is called the Apocalypse, or Revelation. In the open- 
ing chapter he says, "I, John, w^ho also am your 
brother and companion in tribulation, and in the 
kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the 
isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and 
for the testimony of Jesus Christ." 

When Peter asked the manner of John's death, 
the Savior replied, " 'If I will that he tarry till I 
come, what is that to thee?' 



CHARACTER OF JAMES. 125 

"Then went this saying abroad among the breth- 
ren that that disciple should not die." 

Peter, James and John were the chosen 
among the chosen, upon whom the Savior 
bestowed special favor. Peter was a man of 
great energy, fitted to be a leader in the church 
and in society. John possessed a deep, affectionate 
nature, which made him the dearest of the Sav- 
ior's three chosen friends. 

Of James we know very little. He seems to 
have been of a quiet, earnest, meditative turn. 
He presided over the church at Jerusalem until 
the year forty-four of our era, when he sealed his 
testimony with his blood, being the first of that 
glorious band of apostolic martyrs. 

Such were the chief actors in New Testament 
times. The great facts of their lives are corroborated 
both by Jewish and heathen writers, and admitted to 
be true by the most eminent of modern infidels, such 
as Volney, Straus and Renan. Christianity did 
not take its rise in an obscure corner of the earth. 
On the other hand, from the very first it attracted 
the attention of the good, the wise and the learned, 
and aroused the opposition of the wicked, though 
they were powerful kings and potentates of the 
earth. Yet, in spite of all, it has won its way, 
both in ancient times and at the present day among 
the honest in heart by the simplicity, grandeur 
and harmony of its truths. 

We must, therefore, accept the New Testament 
as a whole. We cannot accept the writings of one, 
and say they are true, and reject the writings of 



126 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

another, teaching the same doctrine, and say it is 
false. Neither can we accept the gospel and reject 
the epistles, for there is not a doctrine of the gospel 
which is not taught in the very first of them, that 
written by Matthew. 

He who writes forgeries must needs be well 
posted in the matter of names, dates and places, 
or else he will contradict some well-known facts 
and so expose his forgery to the world. Men who 
write falsehoods do not write as follows : 

"Now, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiber- 
ius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, 
and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his 
brother, Philip, tetrarch of Iturea and of the region 
of Trachonitis, and Lysanius teirarch of Abilene, 
Annas and Caiphas being high priests, the word 
of God came unto John, the son of Zacharias, in 
the wilderness." 

Here, in one sentence, are twenty historical, geo- 
graphical, political and family references, every 
one of which can be proven true by the statements 
of cotemporaneous secular writers. Infidels have 
utterly failed in their attempts to disprove one of 
the hundreds of such statements in the New Tes- 
tament. 

Among the various historical evidences of prim- 
itive Christianity, none seem more authentic or 
possess a deeper interest than those connected with 
the catacombs of ancient Rome. These were sub- 
terraneous chambers or excavations which were 
made in the soft, sandy rock which underlies the 
hills on which stood ancient Rome. To these 



THE CA1AC0MBS. 



127 



dreary vaults the early saints were in the habit of 
retiring, in order to celebrate their worship in 
times of persecution, and in them were buried 
many of the saints and martyrs of the primitive 
church. They consist of long, narrow galleries, 




SECTION OF THE CATACOMB OF CALIXTUS. 



128 



GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



usually about eight feet high and five feet wide, 
which twist and turn in all directions, very much 
resembling mines. The graves were constructed 
by hollowing out a portion of the rock at the side 
of the gallery, large enough to contain the body. 
The entrance was then built up, and generally an 
inscription was placed upon it. 

These excavations were first formed by quarry- 
ing the volcanic, sandy rock, in order to supply 
the materials necessary for the building of ancient 
Rome. They were afterwards increased in order 




BURIAL PLACE IN THE CATACOMBS. 

to procure the sand used for cement, until, at length, 
they formed an area of very extensive dimensions. 
They are mentioned by the Roman writers, Horace 
and Varro, by Cicero and Seutonius. Jerome, 
writing about the middle of the fourth century, 
describes them as they existed in his day, declar- 
ing that he "was accustomed, as a youth, when 
studying in Rome, to visit these dark and dreary 
spots on Sundays, in order to see the tombs of 
apostles and martyrs." 

Among the many inscriptions which the museum 
of the Vatican has derived from the catacombs is 



INSCRIPTION IN THE CA1AC0MBS. 129 

the following. It relates to the reign of Marcus 
Aurelius, or Antoninus, as he is sometimes called, 
about A. D. 150: 

ALEXANDER MORTUUS NON EST SED 
VIVIT SUPER ASTRA ET CORPUS IN HOC 
TUMULO QUIESCIT. VITAM EXPLEVIT 
SUB ANTONINO IMP2, QUI UBI MULTUM 
BENEFITII ANTEVENIRE PRAEVIDERET 
PRO GRATIA ODIUM REDDIDIT GENUA 
ENIM FLECTENS VERO DEO SACRIFICA- 
TURUS AD SUPPLICIA DUCITUR. TEM- 
PORA INFAUSTA! QUIBUS INTER SACRA 
ET VOTA NE IN CAVERNIS QUIDEM SAL- 
VARI POSSIMUS. QUID MISERIUS VITA 
SED QUID MISERIUS IN MORTE CUM 
AB AMICIS ET PARENTIBUS SEPEL- 
IRI NEQUEANT TANDEM IN COELO COR- 
USCANT PARUM VIXIT QUI VIXIT IN X. 
TEM. 

TRANSLATION: 

"Alexander is not dead, but lives beyond the stars, and his 
body rests in this tomb. He lived under the Emperor Anton- 
inus, who, foreseeing that great benefit would result from his 
services, returned evil for good. For, while on his knees and 
about to sacrifice to the true G-od, he was led away to execu- 
tion. 0, sad times! in which sacred rites and prayers, even 
in caverns, afford no protection to us. What can be more 
wretched than such a life, and what than such a death, when 
they could not be buried by their friends and relatives? At 
length they are resplendent in heaven. He has scarcely lived 
who has lived in Christian times." 

Sometimes a victor's crown — one of laurel — is 
intended to mark that the interred one has passed 



1 30 G OSPEL PHIL SOPHY. 

through the agony and strife of his Christian con- 
flict, and was triumphant. At other times the 
simplest words indicated a saint's last resting place. 
In some cases these epitaphs are imperfectly spelled, 
indicating the humble class to which the survivors 
belonged. 



CHAPTER IX. 



FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECY. 



PROPHECY DEFINED — OBJECTIONS TO SYMBOLICAL 
LANGUAGE ANSWERED — HISTORY REVERSED, 

UNINTELLIGIBLE NECESSITY OF PROPHETIC 

OBSCURITY — INFIDEL DREAD OF PROPHECY- 
PROPHECIES CONCERNING BABYLON — THEIR FUL- 
FILLMENT — PROPHECIES CONCERNING EGYPT — 
PROPHECIES CONCERNING JUDEA AND THE JEWS 

CONCERNING THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA 

— TESTIMONIES OF INFIDELS — MODERN PROPH- 
ECY — ITS FULFILLMENT. 

An astronomer is able to predict the eclipses of 
the sun and moon, because he knows the laws that 
govern the heavenly bodies. So also a country- 
woman can predict the time of hatching, and the 
kind of birds that will come forth from a certain 
class of eggs placed under a fowl in the act of 
incubation, because she has many times observed 






PR OPHECY DEFINED. 131 

phenomena of this kind. Prophecy is only pre- 
diction in the highest sense of the term. Our 
Heavenly Father, who knows, not merely the laws 
that govern the material world, but also the men- 
tal, moral and physical laws that govern humanity, 
can foretell the phenomena incident to man's social 
and religious development. He who knows the 
origin of man — both his strength and his weak- 
ness — and the extent and influence of the powers 
of darkness, can foretell the result of that awful 
conflict that has been in progress since before the 
foundation of the world. When man, in obedience 
to law, shall have gained his higher development 
and become as one of the Gods, he will, no doubt, 
obtain the power of prophecy. Even in his pres- 
ent state, every true poet, philosopher and scientist 
may be said to possess, in a certain degree, this 
gift ; in fact, so far as they can penetrate into the 
laws and mysteries of the universe beyond the ken 
of ordinary mortals. Thus the steam-engine was 
predicted eighteen hundred years before Watt 
heard the first deep, regular respiration of this 
modern evangel. Thus, the magnetic telegraph 
was expected for quite three hundred years before 
its first tap of the keys announced its presence. 
When Shakespeare wrote, "I'll put a girdle round 
about the earth in forty minutes/' it was nothing 
but the instinct of the poet, peering with a glim- 
mer of inspiration into the darkened chamber 
towards which science was advancing. Bruno, 
Galileo, Newton, Columbus and Washington had 
glimmerings of this celestial light. The lines 



132 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



Iff 



written by Julia Ward Howe are as truthful as 
they are beautiful: 

' 'Lift up your eyes, desponding freemen, 

Fling to the winds your needless fears; 
He who unfurled your glorious banner, 

Said it shall wave a thousand years. 
A thousand years, my own Columbia, 

'Tis the glad day so long foretold; 
'Tis the glad morn whose early twilight 

Washington saw in days of old. ' ' 

But it is objected that the prophecies of scrip- 
ture are obscure and wrapped up in symbolical 
language. This objection proceeds from a total 
misapprehension of the nature and design of 
prophecy, which is not to unveil the future for the 
gratification of our curiosity, but to give directions 
for our present duty and future welfare. The 
larger part of the prophecies of scripture is taken 
up with directions how men should regulate their 
conduct, rather than with information how God 
intends to regulate His. 

As to the objection against the symbolical lan- 
guage of prophecy, it may be asked, how can 
heavenly things be revealed to earth-born men, 
but by earthly figures? Who knows a single word,- 
in our own or any other language, to express a 
spiritual state, or mental operation, that is not the 
name of some material state or physical operation 
used symbolically? Spirit, memory, imagination, 
etc., are each a symbol or figure of speech. In 
what way could God or man teach us to know 
anything except by either showing us a picture of 
it, or telling us what it is like, that is, simply by 



SYMB OLICAL LANG UA GE. 133 

type or symbol? These are the only possible 
means for conveying heavenly truth or future 
history to our minds. 

When, therefore, the skeptic insists that prophecy 
be given literally in the style of history written in 
advance, he simply requires that God should make 
it utterly unintelligible. 

We may gather much valuable information from 
symbolic language; but history written in advance 
would be more difficult to decipher than the inscrip- 
tions of Nineveh or Egypt, or the still more obscure 
hieroglyphics of Central America. Imagine Alex- 
ander reading Bancroft instead of Daniel. The 
Hebrew prophet he might understand, for he him- 
self was the fulfillment of a part of Daniel's proph- 
ecy, but what could he learn from reading such a 
record as this? "In the year of Christ, 1847, the 
United States conquered Mexico and annexed Cal- 
ifornia." He would say, "In the year of Christ — 
what does that mean? The United States mav 
mean the states of Greece; but on what shore of 
the Mediterranean can Mexico and California be 
found ? " What information could Aristotle gather 
from the fact that the electric telegraph was 
invented in 1844? Could all the wise men of 
Rome have explained to Julius Csesar the following 
dispatch, if given in prophetic vision? "Sebasto- 
pol was evacuated last night after enduring, for 
three days, an infernal fire of shot and shell." 

Should we diminish the vista to within two or 
three centuries, what could Oliver Cromwell, 
aided by the whole British parliament, have made 



1 34 G OSPEL PHIL SOPHY. 

of a prophetic vision of a single newspaper para- 
graph, written in advance, to inform them that 
"Three companies of soldiers came down last night 
from Berwick to Southampton, by a special train, 
traveling fifty-four and a half miles an hour, includ- 
ing stoppages, and embarked immediately on 
arrival. The fleet put to sea at noon in the face 
of a full gale from the south-west?" Why, the 
intelligible part of this single paragraph would 
seem to them more impossible, and the unintellig- 
ible part more absurd than all the mysterious sym- 
bols of the Apocalypse. 

A complete prophetic history of the steam-engine, 
steam navigation and railways would have been 
necessary before they could have understood it. 

The world has accepted God's symbols thousands 
of years ago, and it is too late in the day for skep- 
tics to deride the laws of thought and forms of 
speech. David's prophetic psalms, Isaiah's celes- 
tial anthems, Ezekiel's glorious symbols, Solomon's 
terse proverbs and the Savior's lovely parables will 
be recited and admired ages after the foggy abstrac- 
tions of Parker and Newman, Carlyle and Emer- 
son have vanished from the earth. The Biblical 
symbols of the Thirst of Passion, the Blood of 
Murder, the Rod of Chastisement, the Iron 
Scepter, the Fire of Wrath, the Balance of Right- 
eousness, the Sword of Justice and the Wheels 
of Providence will photograph their lessons on 
Memory's tablet, while the mists of the "positive 
philosophy" float past unheeded to the land of 
forgetfulness. God's prophetic symbols are the 



NECESSITY OF PROPHETIC OBSCURITY. 135 

glorious embodiments of living truths, while skep- 
tics' theories are the melancholy ghosts of expir- 
ing nonsense. 

The prophetic symbols are sufficiently plain to 
be distinctly intelligible after the fulfillment; but 
sufficiently obscure to baffle presumptuous curiosity 
before it. Had they been so written as to be fully 
intelligible beforehand, they must have interfered 
with man's free agency, by causing their own ful- 
fillment. They hide the future sufficiently to 
make man feel his ignorance; they reveal enough 
to encourage faith in the God who rules it. God's 
prophecy is not merely His foretelling something 
which will certainly happen at some future time, 
but over which He has no control — as an astronomer 
foretells an eclipse of the sun, but can neither hasten 
nor hinder.it — but it is the revealing of apart of His 
plan of this world's affairs, to show that God and 
not man is the sovereign of it. Infidels feel the 
power of this manifestation of God in His word ; 
and are driven to every possible denial of the fact. 
They feel, instinctively, that the Bible prophecies 
are far more than mere predictions. They would 
rather endow every human being on earth with 
the power of predicting the future, than allow the 
God of heaven that power of ruling the present, 
which these prophecies assert. Hence we find 
them frequently patronizing "mediums" and for- 
tune tellers of various kinds. 

The prophecies of the scriptures are frequently 
predictions at once unexampled and unparalleled. 
Nations could not perish before they had grown, 



136 



GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



nor empires be destroyed till they had accumulated. 
Babylon, Nineveh, Damascus and Tyre had been 
growing and flourishing for a thousand years, at 



m^'ham 




the time that Jonah, Micah, Hosea and Isaiah 
pronounced their sentences against them. At that 
time, mankind had not yet seen a ruined empire. 
Judging from the past they had no reason to expect 



BABYLON. 137 



anything else than prosperity concerning these 
cities; yet the prophets pronounced desolation and 
solitude against these cities which were then the 
capitals of nations more populous than this con- 
tinent at the present time, and displayed buildings, 
a sight of w r hose crumbling ruins is deemed suffici- 
ent recompense for the perils of a journey of ten 
thousand miles. Every church, hall, school-house, 
theatre and hospital of Salt Lake City could have 
been conveniently arranged in the basement of 
the great temple of Belus. On the first floor there 
was room enough for the whole adult population 
of Utah to assemble, w T hile the remaining seven 
stories would have still been open for the accomoda- 
tion of the citizens of Babylon. When the pro- 
phets wrote their predictions, the walls of Babylon 
had been raised to the hight of three hundred and 
fifty feet, and made broad enough for six chariots 
to drive upon them abreast. From its hundred 
brazen gates issued the armies which trampled 
under foot the liberties of mankind, and presented 
their lives to the nod of a despot, who slew whom 
he would, and w T hom he would, allowed to live. 
Twenty years' provisions were collected within its 
walls, and the world would not believe that an 
enemy could enter its gates. Nevertheless, the 
prophets of God pronounced against it a doom of 
destruction as extraordinary as the pride and 
wickedness which procured it. Tyre, the London 
of Asia, was to "become a place for the spreading 
of nets" {Ezekiel xxvi 5). The infidel, Volney, tells 
us that, "Its commerce has declined to a trifling, 



138 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

fishery;" but even that implies some few resident 
inhabitants. Kabbah of Ammon was to become, 
"A stable for camels and couching place for flocks" 
(Ezekiel xxv, 5). Lord Lindsay reports that, he 
"could not sleep amidst its ruins for the bleating 
of sheep in the sheep-folds and the braying of camels 
in its ruins." Yet sheep-folds imply that their Arab 
owners would occasionally reside near its ruins. 
But desolation, solitude and utter abandonment to 
the wild beast of the desert is the clearly-predicted 
doom of the ancient world's proud capital: "Baby- 
lon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the 
Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God over- 
threw Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be 
inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in, from genera- 
tion to generation : neither shall the Arabian pitch 
his tent there ; neither shall the shepherds make their 
folds there. But wild beasts of the desert shall 
lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful 
creatures ; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs 
shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the 
islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and 
dragons in their pleasant palaces" (Isaiah xiii. 19 
22). 

Every traveler attests the fulfillment of this 
strange prediction. "It is a tenantless and desolate 
ruin," says Mignon, who, though fully armed and 
attended by six Arabs, could not be induced by 
any reward to pass the night among its ruins, 
from his apprehension of evil spirits. So com- 
pletely fulfilled is the prophecy, "The Arabian 
shall not pitch his tent there." The same voice 



PRE SEN! CONDITION OF BABYLON. 139 

that called camels and flocks to the palaces of 
Rabbah, summoned a very different class of tenants 
for the palaces of Babylon. Rabbah was to be a 
sheep-fold, Babylon a menagerie of wild beasts — a 
very specific difference and very improbable. 
However, after it was destroyed and deserted, one 
of the Persian kings repaired its w T alls, converted 
it into a vast hunting ground and stocked it with 
various kinds of wild beasts; and to this day the 
apes of the Spice Islands, and the lions of the 
African wilds meet in its ruins and howl their 
testimony to the truth of God's word. Only a few 
years ago, Sir R. K. Porter and Dr. Rich, saw two 
majestic lions in the "Mujelibe" or ruins of the 
palace. 

The nations selected as examples of divine jus- 
tice are as various as their sentences are different 
— covering a space as long as from New York to 
San Francisco and climes as various as those 
between Canada and Cuba; peopled by men of 
every shade of color and degree of capacity from 
the negro servant of servants, to the builders of 
the Coliseum and the pyramids. The prophe- 
cies describe in their own expressive symbols, the 
nations yet unfounded and kings unborn, who 
should ignorantly execute the judgments of God. 
They also predict the future of over thirty states 
— no two of which are alike. 

If, for instance, a prophet should declare that New 
York should be overturned and become a little 
fishing village — that Philadelphia should become 
a swamp and never be inhabited — that New 



140 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

Orleans should become a dry, barren desert, and 
Chicago be utterly consumed with fire and never 
be rebuilt— that learning should depart from Boston 
and no travelers should pass through it any more — 
that New England should become the basest of the 
nations and no native American ever be president 
of the Union, but that it should be a spoil and a 
prey to the most savage tribes — that the Russians 
should tread Washington under foot for a thousand 
years, but that God would preserve Pittsburg and 
Salt Lake City in the midst of destruction; then, 
if all these things should come to pass, would any 
man dare to say that the prophet spake the dictates 
of human sagacity, or the calculations of human 
reason, and was not inspired by the Spirit of God? 

Such was the character of the prophecies con- 
cerning the geographical, political, social and 
religious condition of the greatest nations of 
antiquity. 

Considering the modes of ancient warfare, Egypt 
was one of the most defensible countries in the 
world. Bounded on the south by high mountains, 
on the east by the Red Sea, on the west by the 
trackless, burning desert, she was able to defend 
the mouths of her river with a powerful navy, to 
drown an invading army every year by the inunda- 
tion of the Nile. Egypt had not only maintained 
her independence, but extended her conquests for 
a thousand years. She had given learning, art, 
science and idolatry to half the world and had 
not yet risen to the hight of her fame or extent of 
her influence until many years after the predic- 



EGYPT'S FATE. 



141 



tions against her were uttered. Yet it was pro- 
phesied, "I will make the rivers dry, and sell the 




. 



land into the hand of the wicked; and I will 
make the land waste and all that is therein by the 



142 G OSPEL PHIL SOPHY. 

hand of strangers. I, the Lord, have spoken it. 
Thus saith the Lord God, I will also destroy the 
idols, and I will cause the images to cease out of 
Noph, and there shall be no more a prince of the 
land of Egypt." 

The infidel, Volney, thus relates the fulfillment 
of these predictions: 

"Such is the state of Egypt. Deprived twenty- 
three centuries ago of her natural properties, she 
has seen her fertile fields successively a prey to the 
Persians, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Greeks, 
the Arabs, the Georgians and at length the race of 
Tartars distinguished by the name of Ottoman 
Turks. The Mamelukes purchased as slaves, and in- 
troduced as soldiers, soon usurped the power and 
selected a leader. If their first establishment was 
a singular event, their continuance is no less extra- 
ordinary; they are replaced by slaves, brought from 
their original country." (Volney' s Travels, Vol. I, 
page 74). 

Gibbon, another infidel, states, "The most illus- 
trious sultans of the Baharite and Beyite dynasties 
were themselves promoted from the Tartar and 
Circassian bands; and the four and twenty beys, 
or military chiefs, have ever been succeeded, not 
by their sons, but by their servants." (Decline and 
Fall, chap. xlix). 

It is needless to remind the reader that the idols 
are cut off. Neither the nominal Christians of 
Egypt nor the Mahometans allow images among 
them. The rivers, too, are drying up. In one 
day's travel forty dry water courses will be crossed 



PROPHECY CONCERNING JUDEA. 143 

in the delta of the Nile; and the traveler needs to 
carry water with him, who explores the ruined 
cities through which once floated Greek and 
Roman navies. 

Again, it was prophesied, "It shall be the basest 
of the kingdoms, neither shall it exalt itself any 
more above the nations, for I will diminish them 
that they shall no more rule over the nations." 
(Ezekiel, xxix, 15). Every traveler attests the truth 
of this prediction. The wretched peasantry are 
rejoiced to labor for any one who will pay them 
five cents a day, and then quickly hide the treas- 
ure in the ground from the rapacious tax-gatherer. 

"In Egypt there is no middle class, neither 
nobility, clergy, merchants nor land-holders. A 
universal appearance of misery arrests the atten- 
tion of the traveler and points out to him the 
rapacity and oppression as well as the ignorance 
of the inhabitants, who are equally unable to per- 
ceive the cause of their evils or to apply the neces- 
sary remedies. Ignorance diffused through every 
class, extends its effects to every species of moral 
and physical knowledge." 

Babylon was to be reduced to utter barrenness 
and desolation, Egypt to slavery and degradation; 
but a different and still more incredible doom is 
pronounced in the Bible upon Judea and its peo- 
ple: "I will make your cities waste and bring your 
sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will bring the 
land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell 
therein shall be astonished at it. And I will scat- 
ter you among the heathen, and will draw out a 



144 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

sword after you: and your land shall be desolate 
and your cities waste." {Leviticus, xzvi, 31-33.) 

"The generation to come of your children and 
the stranger from a far land shall say, Wherefore 
hath the Lord done thus to this land? What 
meaneth the heat of this great anger?" 

The following testimony of Volney is an exam- 
ple of the manner in which God causes infidels 
and scoffers to fulfill the prophecies: 

"I journeyed in the empire of the Ottomans, 
and traversed the provinces, which were formerly 
the kingdoms of Egypt and Syria. This Syria, 
said I to myself, now almost depopulated, then 
contained a hundred flourishing cities, and abound- 
ed with towns, villages and hamlets. What has 
become of those ages of abundance and of life? 
Great God! from whence proceed such melancholy 
revolutions? For what cause is the fortune of 
these countries so strikingly changed? Why are 
so many cities destroyed? Why is not that ancient 
population reproduced and perpetuated? A mys- 
terious God exercises His incomprehensible judg- 
ments. He has doubtless pronounced a secret 
malediction against the earth. He has struck 
with a curse the present race of men in revenge 
of past generations." (Volney 1 s Ruins, Book I). 

The malediction is no secret to any one who 
will read the twenty-ninth chapter of Deuter- 
onomy. 

Of Jerusalem it was predicted, "It shall be trod- 
den down of the Gentiles." Saracens, Turks, Cru- 
saders and pilgrims from all parts of the earth 



PROPHECY CONCERNING ISRAEL. 145 

have been and are fulfilling this prediction at the 
present day. Of the temple, it was said, "There 
shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall 
not be thrown down." History has preserved, and 
the Jews to this day curse the name of the soldier, 
Terentius Rufus, who plowed up the foundations 
of the temple. The Roman emperor, Julian, 
attempted to falsify the Savior's words, "Behold, 
your house is left unto you desolate;" and sent his 
friend, Alypius, with a Roman army and abund- 
ant treasure, to rebuild it. The Jews flocked from 
all parts to assist in the work; but the combined 
forces were obliged to desist from the attempt. 
"Horrible balls of fire, breaking out from the foun- 
dations w T ith repeated attacks, rendered the place 
inaccessible to the scorched workmen and the 
enterprise was dropped." (Ammiam Marcellus, Book 
zxiii, chap. 1). 

Such is the testimony of a heathen, confirmed 
by Jews and Christians. The Mahometan Mosque 
of Omar now rears its lofty dome where once stood 
the Temple of Solomon, and no Jew is permitted 
to tread that sacred spot. 

Of the Israelitish nation God predicted that it 
should be a peculiar, distinct people, dispersed 
among, yet separate from, the other nations of the 
earth: "I will sift the house of Israel among all 
nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall 
not the least grain fall upon the earth." (Amos ix, 
9). Again, "And yet, for all that, when they are 
in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them 
away, neither will I abhor them to destroy them 

8* 



146 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for 
I am the Lord their God." (Lev. xxvi, 44). 

Here are four distinct predictions; national 
peculiarity, grievous oppression, universal disper- 
sion and remarkable preservation. The fulfillment 
is obvious and undeniable. The infidel is sorely 
perplexed to give any account of this great phe- 
nomenon. How does it happen that these singular 
people are dispersed over all the earth, and for 
eighteen hundred years have resisted all the influ- 
ences of nature, all the customs of society and all 
the powers of persecution driving them toward 
amalgamation, and irresistible in all other in- 
stances. In spite of the power of imperial Rome 
and the tortures of the Spanish Inquisition, amid 
the chaos of Asiatic and African tribes, and the 
fusion of American democracy, on the plains of 
Australia and the streets of San Francisco, the 
religion and the customs of the children of Israel 
are as distinct this day as they were three thousand 
years ago when Moses wrote them in the Penta- 
teuch, and their physiognomy the same as when 
Shishak caused them to be engraven on the monu- 
ments of ancient Karnack. Human sagacity 
cannot explain these facts as they exist to-day, 
much less could it foretell them three thousand 
years ago. 

Did space permit, it might be shown that the 
predictions against the seven churches of Asia, 
were literally fulfilled. (See Rev. i and ii). 

Ephesus, once famous for its magnificence and 
the great temple of Diana, the mart of commerce 



THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA. 147 

and the busy avenue of travel, was the first to 
receive the doom of abused privileges: "I will 
remove thy candlestick out of its place unless thou 
repent." 

"A few unintelligible heaps of stone/' says 
Arundell, "with some mud cottages untenanted, 
are all that remain of the great city of the Ephes- 
ians. Even the sea has retired from the scene of 
desolation, and a pestilential morass, covered with 
mud and rushes, has succeeded to the waters which 
brought up the ships laden with merchandise" 
from the whole known world. 

Laodicea, some of whose public buildings would 
contain 100,000 persons; Sardis, that once contained 
more specie than is now in circulation in the 
United States; Thyatira, that once manufactured 
the royal purple of kings and princes; Pergamos, 
the seat of learning and the birth-place of Galen, 
the father of medicine; all these cities are in ruins. 
Amid the fallen columns and broken arches, the 
temple of Jupiter, of Venus or of Diana, will 
equally elude the search of the curious traveler. 
They have all received their doom according to 
the words of Jesus. Yet, Smyrna, against which 
no doom was pronounced, is still the queen city of 
Asia Minor; and Philadelphia, of which it was 
said, "I will write upon him my new name," is 
still erect — a column in a scene of ruins. The 
prediction of the Savior is fulfilled in its modern 
name, Allah Sehr — the city of God. 

The prophecies regarding the Messiah and their 
fulfillment might also be noticed. The time, the 



148 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

place, the manner of His birth, His parentage and 
reception, were plainly declared, hundreds of 
years before He appeared. Compare Micah v. 2, 
and Matthew ii. 1; also Isaiah lxi. 1, and Matthew 
xi. 5; likewise Isaiah liii. 3, and Matthew xxvi. 56. 
These and many other passages prove that the 
character and mission of the coming Messiah were 
pointedly foretold long before He made His 
appearance in the flesh. 

The one grand, unparalleled fact of the resurrec- 
tion from the tomb is also predicted, "Thou wilt 
not leave my soul in hell, nor wilt Thou give 
Thine Holy One to see corruption" (Psalm xvi. 10). 
Often did Jesus predict this event before friend 
and foe. Even His enemies declared, "Sir, we 
remember that that deceiver said, while he was 
yet alive, After three days I will rise again. ,: 
The last chapters of the gospel relate the proofs by 
which He convinced His incredulous disciples that 
the prophecy was fulfilled, "Behold my hands and 
my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, 
for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me 
have. And when He had thus spoken He showed 
them His hands and His feet. And while they 
yet believed not for joy and wondered, He saith 
unto them, 'Have ye here any meat V And they 
gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and of a honey- 
comb. And He took it and did eat before them" 
(Luke xxiv. 39). Afterwards, "He led them out as 
far as to Bethany and He lifted up His hands and 
blessed them. And while He was blessing them 
He was parted from them and carried up into 



MODERN PR OPHECY. 1 49 

heaven" (Luke xxiv. 50, 51). And while they 
looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, 
behold two men stood by them in white apparel 
and said, " Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing 
up into heaven ? This same Jesus, which is taken 
up from you into heaven, shall so come in like 
manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven" (Acts 
i. 10-12). With our own eyes we shall see the 
fulfillment of this prophecy. Every eye shall see 
Him. The clouds of heaven shall then reveal the 
vision now sketched on the page of revelation. 

In conclusion, let us notice a few of the proph- 
ecies given through the Prophet Joseph, and their 
wonderful fulfillment. When Joseph Smith was 
an obscure, unlearned youth, living at his father's 
house, in the then sparsely settled region of west- 
ern New York, the angel Moroni told him that 
God had a work for him to do, and that his name 
should be had for good and evil among all 
nations, kindreds and tongues. Men of all classes 
are witnesses how literally this has been fulfilled. 

Then, again, in 1832, when the United States 
were enjoying the blessings of profound peace, the 
Lord declared, by the mouth of the Prophet Jo- 
seph: "Verily, thus saith the Lord, concerning 
the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning 
at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will 
eventually terminate in the death and misery of 
many souls. * * * * * * 

For behold the Southern States shall be divided 
against the Northern States and the Southern 
States will call on other nations, even the nation 



150 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY, 

of Great Britain, as it is called," etc., {Doc. and Gov., 
Sec. Ixxxvii). The whole adult population of the 
United States are witnesses of the fulfillment of 
this prophecy. For many years it remained unful- 
filled, and the Elders who proclaimed it met with 
scorn and sneers; but, at length, arrived the ter- 
rible havoc and storm of war. There had been 
many rebellions within the territory of the United 
States. In Virginia had occurred Bacon's rebel- 
lion; in Maryland, Clayborne's rebellion; in New 
England, the insurrection, controlled by the Hart- 
ford convention, of 1814; in Western Pennsylvania, 
the State of Franklin, had, at one time, held a 
political existence for nearly two years. Then, by 
what human sagacity was it predicted that the 
war must commence in South Carolina? Let the 
skeptic read and ponder. 



ARROGANCE OF INFIDELS. 151 



CHAPTER X. 



INFIDEL OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 



arrogance of infidels — their ignorance — 
sun's heat — Saturn's rings — a scientist's 
theory of the deluge — density of comets 
— the milky way— unknown forces of 
the universe — antiquity of the earth — 
teachings of ancient prophets — teachings 
of primitive church — modern scientists. 

The grand error of infidel theories in regard 
to creation lies in the arrogant assumption on 
which every one of them must be founded. They 
assume that the theorist is acquainted with all 
substances and all forces in the universe, and with 
all the modes of their operation. This knowledge 
must apply, not merely to the present age, but to 
all past epochs; not merely to this world, but, 
likewise, to others in widely different and utterly 
unknown situations and conditions. Otherwise, 
that unknown force must have had its influence in 
framing the world. For instance, a theory of cre- 
ation which would neglect the attraction of gravi- 
tation would be manifestly false. But there are 
other laws, the power of repulsion, for instance, 
whose omission would be equally fatal. Skeptics 



152 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY, 

are aware of this fact, and have sought to simplify 
matters, by reducing all substances to a few sim- 
ple elements, and all forces to the form of one 
universal law. Instead of this, chemistry, every 
year, reveals new substances and increases our 
knowledge of nature's variety. At one time, it was 
boasted that astronomy would enable us to account, 
for all the operations of the universe ; but, instead 
of this, it has revealed substances and forces, 
whose nature and combinations are entirely un- 
known. 

For example, it is estimated that the sun's heat 
at its surface is 300,000 times greater than at the 
surface of the earth. An exceedingly few rays of 
the sun, concentrated by a burning mirror, will 
convert gold and platina into vapor. At this rate, 
it is calculated that "if a cataract of icebergs, a 
mile high and as broad as the Atlantic ocean, was 
launched into the sun, with the velocity of a can- 
non ball, it would be converted into steam as fast 
as it entered his atmosphere, without cooling his 
surface in the least degree. But how is such an 
enormous heat kept up? Hitherto, every discov- 
ery, so far from giving us an explanation, seems 
rather to remove farther the prospect of probable 
explanation." (Outlines of Astronomy, Vol. vi., p. 
400.) Yet the sun is the nearest of the fixed stars, 
by far the best known, and most nearly related to 
us. In fact, we are dependent on his influence for 
life and health. But if the infidel cannot tell the 
sun's substance, or the nature and cause of the 
light and heat he sends us, how can he presume to 



SATURN. 153 



tell us how this same sun was formed, or declare 
that the Biblical account is false? 

Concerning the nearest planets, how little do we 
know ! Are they built of the same materials as 
our planet? Are Saturn's rings solid or liquid? 
The planet, Saturn, is surrounded with a revolv- 
ing belt consisting of several distinct rings, con- 
taining an estimated area a hundred and forty-six 
times greater than the surface of our globe, with 
a thickness of a hundred miles. From mechan- 
ical considerations, it has been proved that these 
rings could not be of uniform thickness all around, 




VIEW OF SATURN, SHOWING RINGS. 

else when a majority of her seven moons were on 
the same side, the attraction would draw them in 
upon her on the opposite sids; and once attracted 
to her surface, they could never get loose again, if 
they were solid. It was next ascertained that the 
motion of the moons of Saturn and her rings was 
such that the rings must be capable of changing 
their thickness according to circumstances. Finally, 
it was demonstrated that these rings were fluid 
and that their density' is nearly that of water, 
and that the inner portion, at least, is so transpar- 



154 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

ent that the planet has been seen through it. The 
rings of Saturn are, then, a stream or streams of 
fluid, rather denser than water, flowing about the 
planet. This extraordinary fact, which shows how 
God can deluge a planet when He pleases, is given 
in the language of a philosopher whose thought- 
less illustration of revelation is all the more valu- 
able that it is unintentional : 

"M. Otto Struve, Mr. Bond and Sir David Brew- 
ster are agreed that Saturn's third ring is fluid, 
that it is gradually approaching the body of Sat- 
urn, and that we may expect, sooner or later, to 
see it united with the body of the planet. With 
this deluge impending, Saturn would scarcely be 
a very eligible residence for men whatever it 
might be for dolphins." (See Annual of Scientific 
Discovery, 1856, p. 377.) 

Let the skeptic show that God did not, or could 
not suspend a similar celestial ocean over the earth, 
or cease to pronounce a universal deluge impos- 
sible. 

Again, it may be asked, Has the moon an atmos- 
phere? Are the atmospheres of the planets like 
ours? What is the cause of the light and heat of 
the sun? These and many other questions 
scientists variously answer, but leave unanswered 
after all. 

Comets constitute by far the greatest number 
of the bodies of our solar system. Arago says 
seven millions frequent it, within the orbit of Ura- 
nus. They are the largest bodies known to us, 
stretching across hundreds of millions of miles. 



DENSITY OF COMETS. 



155 



They approach nearer to this earth than any other 
bodies, sometimes even involving it in their tails, 
and generally exciting great alarm among its 
inhabitants. But the nature of the transparent, 
luminous matter of which they are composed is 
utterly unknown. While their density was doubt- 
ful, they formed very convenient material for the 
atheist's world-factory; but recently they have been 




THE COMET OF 1811. 

literally dissipated into smoke by powerful tele- 
scopes. In fact a respectable wreath of smoke is 
quite substantial compared with the densest of 
the comets. Stars of the smallest magnitude 
remain distinctly visible though covered by what 
appears to be their densest portion ; although these 
same stars would be completely obscured by a 
moderate fog extending only a few yards above the 



156 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



earth. Neither are they dense enough to east a 
shadow. It is thus evident that the most substan- 
tial clouds which float in our atmosphere are dense 
and massy bodies compared with the filmy and all 
but spiritual texture of a comet's tail. 

Neither do men understand the laws that govern 
the motion of comets. As they approach the sun, 
they come under an influence directly the opposite 
of attraction. While the body of the comet travels 
towards the sun, sometimes w r ith a velocity 



COMET PASSING ROUND THE SUN (ITS PERIHELION). 

nearly one-third of that of light, the tail shoots 
forth in the opposite direction with much greater 
velocity. The greatest velocity with which we are 
acquainted on earth is the velocity of light, which 
travels a million times faster than a cannon ball, 
or at the rate of 195,000 miles per second. 

But infidels tell us that the universe is infinite, 
and therefore self-existent. This assertion is essen- 
tial to their creed. They must establish this fact 



7 HE MILKY WAY. 157 

before they can convince themselves or any other 
person, that the universe had no Creator; for that 
which exists by the necessity of its own nature 
must exist in all time and in every place. But it 
can be easily shown that our solar system has 
boundaries, and does not fill the immensity of 
space. That broad band of luminous clouds, 
which stretches across the heaven, called the Milky 
Way, consists of millions of stars, so small and 
distant that we cannot see the individual stars, and 
so numerous that we cannot help seeing the light 
of the mass; just as we may see the outline of a 
forest at a distance, but are unable to distinguish 
the individual trees. Besides the Milky Way there 
are many other star-clouds, in various parts of the 
heavens, which have successively been shown by 
the telescope to consist of multitudes of stars. But 
all around these star-clouds, or Nebulae as they are 
called, the clear blue sky is discovered by the 
naked eye. Now it is easy to perceive that if all 
the regions of space were filled with self-luminous 
suns or planets capable of reflecting light, or even 
comets, we should see no blue sky at all: in a 
word, the whole heaven would be one vast Milky 
Way. 

Though the telescope discovers multitudes of stars 
where the naked eye sees none, yet they are seen 
projected on a perfectly dark heaven. "And even 
through the Milky Way, and the other star-clouds, 
the telescope penetrates through intervals abso- 
lutely dark and completely void of any star of the 
smallest telescopic magnitude" (Outlines of Astron- 



158 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

omy, chap. xvii). It may assist us to understand 
the full import of this declaration to remember 
that the largest telescopes now in use, clearly 
define any object on the moon's surface as large as 
the Deseret Bank. We may comprehend to some 
extent their power of penetrating space by the fact 
that light, which flashes from San Francisco to 
London quicker than you can close your eye and open 
it again requires thousands of years to travel to our 
earth from the most distant stars discernible by 
these telescopes. If a solar system like ours 
existed anywhere within this amazing distance 
these telescopes would certainly reveal it. In 
gazing through these instruments we are made to 
feel most sensibly that not merely this world which 
constitutes our earthly all, and yon glorious sun 
which shines upon it, but all the host of heaven's 
suns, planets, moons and firmaments, which our 
unaided eyes behold, are but as the handful of 
sand of the ocean shore, compared with the 
immensity of the universe. But ever, and along 
with this it has shown us the ocean, as well as the 
shore, and revealed boundless regions of darkness 
and solitude stretching around and far away 
beyond these islands of existence. 

When we come to consider the vastness of these 
regions of darkness, over which no light has traveled 
for millions of years, and remember also that astron- 
omers have looked clear through the nebulae, and 
find that they bear no more proportion to the 
infinite darkness behind them, than the sparks of 
a chimney do to the extent of the sky against 



FORCES OF 1HE UNIVERSE. 159 

which they seem projected, so far from imagining 
the solar system to be infinite, we stand confounded 
at its relative insignificance. 

There is no possible evasion of this great fact. 
It cannot be objected "that stars may exist at vast 
distances, whose light has not yet reached the 
limits of our system;" for there is no possible 
distance over which light could not have traveled, 
during eternal duration. But the eternal existence 
of these stars is the very thing which the atheist 
is concerned to prove. If we admit that these 
worlds had a beginning, we are compelled to seek 
a cause for that beginning: that is to say, a 
Creator. 

Nor will it answer the purpose to say, "that 
these dark regions may be filled with dark stars." 
If it could be proven that some stars shine, while 
others are dark; then why this difference? Var- 
iety is an effect, and demands a prior cause. 
Worlds therefore do not exist by the necessity of 
their own nature, wherever there is room for them, 
but must have had a pre-existent, external and 
supernatural cause of their existence in the places 
where they exist. This implies design — will — 
God. 

In these amazing disclosures of the unknown 
forces of the heavens, do we not hear a voice rebuk- 
ing the presumption of ignorant theorists, and 
asking, "Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven ? 
Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth" 
(Job xxxviii. 33). How many ^influences, hitherto 
undiscovered by our ruder senses, may be ever 



160 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

streaming toward us, and modifying every terres- 
trial action. And yet, because man has traced a 
little concerning one or two of these laws, we have 
deemed our astronomy complete. We have no 
reason, save our own self-sufficient arrogance, to 
believe that the discovery of these forces exhausts 
the treasures of infinite wisdom. 

But the infidel asks us, "Does not the Bible 
make a false declaration, when it says that the 
universe was created only some six or seven thous- 
and years ago?" We reply by asking, Where does 
the Bible say so? "But," says our objector, "is not 
this the doctrine held by the various sects and 
taught by the various commentators?" That is 
not the question before us just now. We are not 
asking what sects believe, or uninspired teachers 
teach ; but, "What does the Bible say." The Bible 
uniformly attributes the most remote antiquity to 
the work of creation. "In the beginning God 
created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. i. 1). So 
far from supposing man's appearance on the earth 
to be even approximately coeval with the creation, 
hurcian presumption is reproved in the remarkable 
words, "Where wast thou when I laid the founda- 
tions of the earth?" (Job, xxxviii. 4.) In majestic 
contrast with the frail human race, Moses glances 
at the primeval monuments of God's antiquity, 
as though by them he might form some faint 
conceptions of eternity, and sings, "Before the 
mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst 
formed the earth and the world, even from everlast- 
ing, to evelasting thou art God" (Ps. xc. 2). The 



ANTIQUITY OF THE EARTH. 161 

very phrase in the beginning, is in itself an emphatic 
refutation of the notion, that the work of creation is 
only some six or seven thousand years old. Geol- 
ogists have been unable to invent a better, and have 
borrowed from the Bible this very form of speech, 
to designate as the primary formations, those strata 
beyond which human knowledge cannot penetrate. 
This phrase, in Bible language, marks the last 
promontory on the boundless ocean of past eternity: 
the only positive phrase, by which we can express 
the most remote period of past duration. It 
expresses not a date — a point of duration ; but a 
period — a vast cycle. But one boundary is percept- 
ible to mortals : that where creation rises from its 
abyss. Created eye has never seen the other 
shore. 

Let the geologist then penetrate as deeply as he 
can into the profundities of the earth's founda- 
tions, and bring forth the monuments of their 
hoary antiquity ; we will follow with unfaltering 
faith. Let the astronomer raise his telescope and 
reflect, on our astonished eyes, the light which 
flashed from morning stars, on the first day of 
this earth's existence, or even the rays which began 
to travel from distant suns millions of years ere 
the first morning dawned on our planet: they 
shall shed a sacred lustre over the pages of inspira- 
tion, and give new beauties of illustration to its 
majestic symbols. But never in this life will 
geologists penetrate the depth of its mysteries, nor 
astronomers attain the sublimity of that begin- 
ning revealed in its pages. It is placed in an 



162 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

antiquity beyond the power of human calculation, 
in that sublime sentence with which it introduces 
mortals to the Eternal, "In the .beginning God 
created the heavens and the earth." 

The doctrine of the creation the earth'only six or 
seven*thousand years ago*is a product of monkish 
ignorance. Clemens of Alexandria, whojived in 
the second century of the Christian'era, and Justin 
Martyr, who was^a~disciple~and_companion of the 
Apostle John, both teach. the ^existence of an 
indefinite period between the creation and the 
preparatory work, fitting^ it for the habitation of 
man. The Jewish rabbis[also are perfectly explicit 
in recognizing these^distinctions. 

But itjs replied, "Does not the Bible say, -in the 
fourth commandment, 'In six days the Lord made 
heaven, and earth, and the^sea, and ] all that in 
them is?' etc" True. But we are speaking just 
now of a very different jsvork ; the work of creation. 
If any one does not know the difference between 
create and make, let him turn to his dictionary, and 
Webster will inform him. If he has no dictionary, 
he can satisfy himself thoroughly, as to the differ- 
ent meanings of ^these two ^words, by looking at 
their use in the Bible. He will find the term 
create used when there were no organized materials 
to form the earth from ; unless we adopt the infidel 
absurdity that the paving stones made themselves. 
He will also find that the term make is applied to 
the adjusting of the earth in its present condition 
(see Gen., i, 21 and 27. Psalms, li, 10. Ecclesiastes, 
xii, 1. Col, i, 16). 



STUPIDITY OF INFIDELS. 163 

But between these two widely different processes, 
namely the creation, and the organizing of the 
world there intervened a period of indefinite 
length. That orginal chaos, which some would 
find in the second verse, never had an existence 
save in the brains of atheistic philosophers. It is 
purely absurd. The crystals of the smallest grain 
of sand, the sporules of the humblest fungus on 
the rotten tree, and the animalculse in the filthiest 
pool of mud, are as orderly in their arrangements, 
as perfect after their kind, and as wisely adapted 
to their station as the most perfect beings on the 
earth. 

If then astronomers and geologists assert that 
the earth was millions or hundreds of millions of 
years in process of preparation for its present 
state, by a long series of successive destructions 
and renovations, and gradual formations, there is 
not one word in the Bible to contradict that 
opinion; but on the contrary, very many texts 
which fully and unequivocally imply its truth. 

Infidels frequently attempt to make sport of the 
figures of sacred poetry such as the "pillars," and 
"windows of heaven," the "corners of the earth," 
the "four winds of heaven," etc. One prominent 
infidel writer asserts that Moses was so ignorant of 
the nature of the atmosphere, and the origin of 
rain that he taught that the firmament was simply 
a brazen hemisphere or huge caldron placed in an 
inverted position over the earth, that a fresh-water 
ocean was outside of this, and that the figurative 
term "windows of heaven" meant trap-doors to let 



164 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY, 

the waters descend in the form of rain upon the 
inhabitants of the earth. If so, Moses did not put 
his teachings into practice ; for we find that he set 
up a brazen hemisphere in the tabernacle and 
placed its mouth upwards and put water on the 
inside of it. Such are the miserable subterfuges 
to which infidels will resort when in want of an 
argument. They seem to forget that a thousand 
years before skeptics had learned to talk nonsense 
about crystal spheres, and trap-doors in the bottom 
of celestial oceans, the writers of the Bible were 
recording those conversations of pious philosophers 
concerning stars, clouds and rain, from which 
Galileo derived the first hints of the causes of 
barometrical phenomena. The origin of rain, its 
proportion to the amount of evaporation, and the 
mode of its distribution by condensation, could 
not be propounded by Humboldt himself with 
greater clearness than they are described by Job, 
the ancient philospher of the land of Uz. "He 
maketh small the drops of water: they pour down 
rain according to the vapor thereof, which the 
clouds do draw and distil upon man abundantly" 
(Job xxxvi. 27). The cause of this rarefaction of 
cold water, is as much a mystery to modern 
scientific associations as it was to Job and Elihu ; 
and even were all the electrical tension of vapors 
disclosed, "the balancing of the clouds" would 
only be more clearly discovered to be, as the Bible 
declares, "the wonderful works of Him, who is 
perfect in knowledge." Three thousand years 
before the theory of the trade winds was demoji- 



TEA CHINGS OF ANCIENT PR OPHETS. 165 

strated by Maury, it was written in the Bible, 
"The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth 
about unto the north," and, "The wind returneth 
again according to his circuits" (Eccl. i, 6). Thou- 
sands of years before Newton, Galileo and Coperni- 
cus w T ere born, Isaiah was writing about the orbit 
of the earth and the earth's relative insignificance 
(Isaiah xl, 22). Even the modern names of some 
of the constellations of the heavens were known 
to the ancients. "Canst thou bind the sweet 
influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?" 
(Job xxxviii, 31). 

One of the most vaunted objections, which 
infidels bring against the Bible, is that which 
represents God as creating light before the sun, 
and the sun, moon and stars, only two days before 
the creation of man. They seem to forget that 
the term to create is nowhere used in connection 
with the preparing of the earth for the habitation 
of man. By careful reading it will be seen at 
once that the darkness spoken of in the first 
chapter of Genesis had reference to this planet 
only. There is not the remotest hint, in any 
portion of scripture, that any other planet or star 
w T as shrouded in gloom at that time. On the 
contrary, we are most distinctly informed that the 
wonders which God was performing in this world, 
at that very time, were distinctly visible amid 
the cheerful illumination of other orbs. "When 
the morning stars sang together, and all the sons 
of God shouted for joy," as this earth emerged 
from its primeval darkness. 



166 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

True the Bible represents that this earth was 
illuminated at a time when the sun was not 
visible from its surface. Now, if any one will 
presume to scoff at the Bible for speaking of light 
without sunshine — as infidels frequently do — 
what will he say of the light which exists in the 
midst of a London fog or on the banks of New- 
foundland? To understand, how there may be 
day without sunshine, we need only conceive the 
whole earth enveloped in vapors such as Humboldt 
describes a portion of Peru. "A thick mist obscures 
the firmament in this region for many months. 
If by chance the sun's disc becomes visible during 
the day, it appears devoid of rays, as if seen 
through colored glasses. According to what 
modern geology has taught us concerning the 
ancient history of our atmosphere, its primitive 
condition must have been unfavorable to the 
transmission of light" (Humboldt's Cosmos, Vol in, 
V. 139). 

Dr. Dana is evidently of the same opinion. In 
speaking of the formation of coal and the peculiar 
vegetation which flourished upon the earth during 
that period, the remains of w^hich are found 
imbedded in the coal measures ; he says, "In the 
Pacific ocean, off the coast of Chili, there is an 
island named Chiloe, where it rains 300 days in 
the year, and where the light of the sun is shut 
out by perpetual fogs. On this island, arborescent 
ferns, form forests, beneath which grow herbaceous 
ferns, which rise three feet and upwards above a 
marshy soil, and a mass of plants flourish there, 



CONTINUAL CHANGE IN NATURE. 167 

resembling in their main features the plants 
found in the coal fields" {Manual of Geology, 1880). 
Thus science corroborates the word of God. 

Another favorite theory of the unbeliever is the 
uniformity of nature. "Where," says he, "is 
the promise of Christ's coming to judgment ; for 
since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as 
they were since the beginning of the world?" But 
on examination astronomy dispels the illusion, 
exhibits the course of nature as a succession of 
catastrophies, displays the conflagration of other 
worlds, and the extinction of other suns, before 
our eyes, and asks, Why should our sun differ from 
other suns? In short there is no permanence in 
the heavens, any more than on the earth; but a 
perpetual change is the destiny of suns and stars. 
A few instances it may be well to transcribe : 
"On the 11th of November, 1572, as the illus- 
trious Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe, was walk- 
ing through the fields, he was astonished to observe 
a new star in the constellation Cassiopea, beaming 
with a radiance quite unwonted in that part of the 
heavens. Suspecting some delusion about his 
eyes, he went to a group of peasants to ascertain if 
they saw it, and found them gazing at it with as 
much astonishment as himself. He went to his 
instrument and fixed its place, from which it never 
after appeared to deviate. For some time it 
increased in brightness — greatly surpassing Sirius 
in luster, and even Jupiter — so that it could be 
seen by good eyes in the day time. After reaching 
its greatest brightness, it again diminished, assum- 



168 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

ing in succession the hues of a dying conflagra- 
tion, and then finally disappeared. It is impos- 
sible to imagine anything more tremendous than 
a conflagration that could be visible at such a 
distance" (NicholVs Solar System, page 118). 

Sir John Herschell describes the star, Eta Argus, 
which, in the year 1837, went through similar 
variations. Humboldt gives a catalogue of twenty- 
four such stars, whose variations have been 
recorded, and asks, Why should our sun differ from 
other suns ? " What we no longer see is not neces- 
sarily annihilated. It is merely the transition of 
matter into new forms — into combinations which 
are subject to new processes. Dark cosmical 
bodies may, by a new process of light, again 
become luminous" (Cosmos Vol III, page 232). 

Nicholl sums up the matter in the following 
emphatic words : "No more is light inherent in the 
sun than in Tycho's vanished star ; and with it and 
other orbs a time may come when the sun shall 
cease to be required to shine. The womb which 
contains the future is that which bore the past" 
(Solar System, page 190). 

The threatenings of God's word are invested 
with a mantle of terrible literality by the facts we 
have been contemplating. 



VAIN ASPIRANTS. 169 



CHAPTER XI 



MOSES AND MODERN SCIENCE, 



SCIENCE AGREES WITH RELIGION — NEBULAR THE- 
ORY — SUN A DARK BODY — SUN SPOTS — VARI- 
OUS SOURCES OF LIGHT — PRIMEVAL OCEAN — 
DENSITY OF EARLY ATMOSPHERE — VEGETA- 
TION OF COAL PERIOD EVERYWHERE IDENTI- 
CAL — UNIFORMITY OF CLIMATE. 

There is a class of aspirants to gentility who 
refuse to recognize any person not dressed in the 
style which they suppose fashionable among the 
higher classes. A story is told of a wealthy Glas- 
gow brewer's wife, who, attired in all the magnifi- 
cence of her satins, laces and jewelry, was driving 
out in her carriage one day in the vicinity of Bal- 
moral. A quiet lady, clad in a plain, gingham 
dress and gray shawl, was gathering a bouquet of 
wild flowers in the hedge, and as the carriage 
passed by, wished the occupant a pleasant "good 
morning/' to which the brewer's wife answered by 
a contemptuous nod, but afterwards learned to her 
great mortification, that she had thus lost an 
opportunity of forming an acquaintance with 
Queen Victoria. So a large class of pretenders to 
science refuse to become acquainted with Bible 

9* 



170 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

truth, because it is not shrouded in the technical- 
ities of science, but displays itself in the plain 
speech of the common people to whom it was 
given. 

Of late years the first chapter of Genesis has 
been assailed by scientists in such a manner that 
even some professing Christians and other devout 
believers in the Old Testament have come to doubt 
the authenticity of that chapter ; while the efforts 
of some modern divines to interpret its sayings so 
as to conform to the declarations of so-called sci- 
ence, have in some cases been pitiful to behold. 
We do not claim that what is called science is 
infallible. True science is indisputable. But 
much that is called science is only theory. In the 
writings of learned men, concerning the formation 
of the world, and geologic processes and periods, 
there is a large mixture of theory and guess-work 
along with some demonstrated facts and principles. 
We believe, however, that there is no real conflict 
between the Mosaic account of the creation and 
the nebular theory, which is the most widely 
accepted among the most prominent scientists. 

The Bible declares, "In the beginning God 
created the heavens and the earth." Science 
admits that there was a "Great First Cause." The 
world-famous scientist, Herbert Spencer, says, "The 
universe had its origin in the unknown source of 
things." The Bible declares, "The earth was with- 
out form, and void, and darkness was upon the 
face of the deep." Science teaches us that matter 
primarily existed without any form, in a highly 



SCIENCE AGREES WITH THE BIBLE. 171 

attenuated and invisible condition, but containing 
all the elements which now compose the solid and 
fluid portions of the earth, and while it was in 
this condition it was non-luminous. Before mo- 
tion there was no light. The Bible says the "Spirit 
of God moved upon the face of the waters." (The 
original word mayhim means literally a flowing, 
non-solid, fluid substance.) Scientists admit that 
motion as well as matter demands, a cause, and 
that the earth was then a flowing or movable sub- 
stance or fluid. Thus we see that the description 
given by Moses of that far, far off period is not 
only correct but likewise has a depth of meaning 
that is perfectly sublime. 

Let us now turn to another chapter in nature's 
volume and compare it with the second event 
mentioned by Moses. "And God said, Let there be 
light: and there was light." Scientists admit that 
the first visible effect of motion in the fluid mass 
was the giving out of light. And here it may 
not be out of place to give a concise description of 
the nebular theory: 

"La Place conceived the sun to be at one period 
the nucleus of a vast nebula or star-cloud, the mat- 
ter of which extended beyond what is now the 
orbit of the remotest planet of the solar system. 
This mass of matter in process of condensation, 
and probably by the agency of electricity, was 
endued with a circulating motion around its center 
of gravity. The tendency which all revolving 
bodies possess to fly off from the center, caused 
portions of this nebula in process of condensation, 



172 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

to detach themselves from the parent mass, and 
form themselves into concentric rings, which after- 
wards, by condensation and electrical action, sep- 
arated themselves into distinct bodies. These 
masses, which hence constituted the various plan- 
ets, in their turn condensing after the manner of 
the parent mass and abandoning their outlying 
matter, became surrounded by similar concentric 
rings, which in turn formed satellites or moons 
surrounding the various planetary masses. In 
proof of this, the case of the planet Saturn has 
been cited to show that the w T ork of creation is 
still in progress. As is well known, this planet is 
surrounded by a revolving belt, consisting of sev- 
eral distinct rings still unbroken." 

While infidels are scoffing at the idea of light 
without the sun, modern science has discovered 
the astonishing fact, that even at this moment the 
globe of the sun is not a source of light to itself 
much less to us; that, in fact light is no more con- 
nected with the sun than with a candlestick. The 
sun consists mainly of a dark nucleus, like the body 
of the earth and other planetary globes, surround- 
ed by two atmospheres of enormous depths, the one 
nearest to him being cloudy and dense like our 
atmosphere, while the loftier stratum consists of 
dazzling electric and phosphorescent zephyrs that, 
bestow light on so many surrounding spheres. 
This phosphorescent atmosphere, or photosphere, as 
it is called, is by no means inseparably attached 
to the surface of the nucleus or dark body beneath. 
Nor is it in any degree stable, but is subject to 



SUN SPOTS. 



173 



extensive fluctuations and the most violent com- 
motions, being frequently swayed and whirled 
aside, laying bare the surface of the dark globe 
beneath for thousands of miles to the observation 
of astronomers, and even to the naked eye. 

In the month of June, 1843, a spot was visible 
which, according to the measurements of Schwabe, 




THE SUN AS SEEN BY MR. PROCTOR SEPTEMBER 25TH, 1870. 

the astronomer, had a length of no less than 74,816 
miles. On March 15th, 1858, observers of the 
great solar eclipse had an opportunity of seeing a 
spot which had a breadth of 107,520 miles. But 



174 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

the most remarkable view of the sun was that 
exhibited September 25th, 1870. One of the open- 
ings was so vast that it was calculated that eigh- 
teen of our worlds, placed side by side, would 
have scarcely filled the chasm. 

The latest discoveries in science tend rather to 
demonstrate that the sun's light is but very faintly 
visible on his globe; and that there is no such 
thing as solar heat. What is popularly called so 
is only the heat caused by the friction of the waves 
of light passing through the atmosphere, or strik- 
ing against the earth. "We approach the question 
of the sun's inhabitability," says Sir David Brew- 
ster, "with the certain knowledge that the sun is 
not a red hot globe, but that its nucleus is a solid, 
opaque mass, receiving very little light from, its 
luminous atmosphere." "For ought we know the 
dark, solid nucleus of the sun may have existed 
for millions of years and given out no light what- 
ever. It is quite possible that variations of the 
sun's light may have been caused through electric- 
al action. The telescope has shown us that the 
fixed stars are also luminous bodies similar to our 
sun, only very far distant from us. Some of these 
have suddenly flashed into existence, where none 
were previously visible. The appearance of twenty- 
one such stars is Qn record. Others have greatly 
increased in brightness; and, still further, many 
familiar suns have ceased to shine. On a careful 
re-examination of the heavens, many stars are 
found to be missing." (HerschelVs Outlines, Sec. 
832.) 



VARIOUS SOURCES OF LIGHT. 175 

The variation of our supply of light from the 
sun is the only explanation we have of the great 
alternations of heat and cold which have been so 
extensive as, at one period, to have clothed high 
northern latitudes, such as Greenland and Siberia, 
with a more than tropical luxuriance of vegeta- 
tion, and, at another time, to have buried vast tracts 
of Europe and America, now enjoying a genial 
climate, under vast glaciers and mountains of ice. 

Again, light, so far from being solely derived 
from the sun, exists in, and can be educed from 
almost any known substance. The metallic bases 
of most earths and alkalies are capable of emitting 
light in suitable electrical conditions, and a bril- 
liant flame can be produced by the combustion 
even of water. All the metals can be made to 
flash forth lightnings under suitable electric and 
magnetic excitements; and the crystals of several 
rocks give out light during the process of crystal- 
lization. Thousands of miles of the earth's surface 
must once have presented the lurid glow of a vast 
furnace of melted granite. Even at a far later 
period of its history, it may have shone with a 
luster little inferior to that of the sun ; for lime, of 
which unknown thousands of miles of its strata 
consist, when subject to a heat much less than that 
produced by contact with melted granite or lava, 
emits a brilliant, white light of such intensity that 
the eye cannot support its luster. (See Turner's 
Chemistry, Sec. 160.) 

As is well known, the moon is a dark, opaque 
body, therefore the copper color of the moon, dur- 



176 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

ing a total eclipse, when the dark side of the earth 
is turned towards the moon, shows us that the 
earth, even now, is a source of light. That God 
could command the light to shine out of darkness, 
and convert the very ocean into a magnificent 
illumination, the following fact clearly proves : 

"Captain Bonnycastle coming up the gulf of St. 
Lawrence, on the 7th of September, 1826, was 
roused by the mate of the vessel in great alarm 
from an unusual appearance. It was a starlight 
night, when suddenly the sky became overcast in 
the direction of the highland of Corn wallis County, 
and an instantaneous and intensely vivid light, 
resembling the aurora, or northern lights, shot out 
from the hitherto dark and gloomy sea, on the lee 
bow, which was so brilliant that it lighted every 
thing distinctly, even to the mast-head. The light 
spread over the sea between the two shores, and 
the waves, which before had been tranquil, now 
began to be agitated. Captain Bonnycastle 
describes the scene as that of a blazing, sheet of 
awful and most brilliant light. A long and vivid 
line of light, superior in brightness to the parts of 
the sea not immediately near the vessel, showed 
the base of the high, frowning and dark land 
abreast; the sky became lowering and more in- 
tensely obscure. Long, tortuous lines of light 
showed immense numbers of large fish darting 
about as if in consternation. The top-sail yard 
and mizen boom were lighted by the glare, as if 
gas-lights had been burning directly below them; 
and until just before daj^break, at four o'clock, the 



THE FIRST DAY, 17? 

most minute objects were distinctly visible." {Con- 
nection of Physical Sciences, p. 288.) 

In the fourth and fifth verses of the first chapter 
of Genesis we are told, "And God saw the light, 
that it was good : and God divided the light from 
the darkness. And God called the light day, and 
the darkness He called night. And the evening 
and morning were the first day." 

In spite of all the sneers of infidels, the candid 
reader finds the divine record sublime in its sim- 
plicity. The good effect of light upon our planet 
was immediately apparent. The earth having now 
become sufficiently condensed to cast a shadow, 
there was, of course, one side enjoying the light 
of the sun while the other was in shadow. Thus 
the dark body of the earth was the means by which 
God divided the light from the darkness, as at the 
present ; and the first rotation of the earth upon its 
axis causing the shadow^ and the light to be alter- 
nately on every part of the earth, produced the 
evening and the morning of the first day. How 
long the first day was, we know not. From observ- 
ations of phenomena going on in the Spiral Nebula 
at the present time, it is reasonable to suppose that 
the first revolution of the earth upon its axis occu- 
pied a vast epoch of time. 

The next process in the organization of the earth 
was the forming of an atmosphere : "And God said, 
let there be be a firmament" (literally, expanse) u in the 
midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters 
from the waters. And God made the firmament, 

10 



1 78 G OSPEL PHIL SOPHY. 

and divided the waters, which are under the firma- 
ment: and it was so." {Gen. i, 6-7). 

Now let us turn to ;the book of nature and see 
how science corroborates these facts. Geologists 
tell us that the motion of the particles of matter 
which form the earth, in course of condensation 
became very hot; for heat and motion are only 
different names for the same thing. Heat is easily 
convertible into motion, as every one knows who 
has a steam engine, and motion can easily be 
changed into heat, as everybody knows, by 
friction, that is by rubbing two substances 
together. 

M. Mangin, in his "Mysteries of the Ocean/' 
thus graphically describes the first formation of 
the universal ocean: "As the earth continued to 
cool, a time arrived when its temperature became 
insufficient to maintain in a state of vapor the 
vast masses of water which floated in the atmos- 
phere. These vapors would pass into a liquid state, 
and then the first rain fell upon the earth. This 
water would in turn be quickly evaporated and 
again ascend into the colder regions of space, 
where it would again condense and fall upon the 
earth. This might take place many times; but 
each time much heat would be withdrawn from 
the surface of the globe, and at last the waters 
would settle down and form a universal ocean. 
And the evening and the morning were the second 
day." 

Further we are told : "And God said, Let the 
waters under the heaven be gathered together unto 



PRIMEVAL OCEAN. 179 

one place, and let the dry land appear : and it was 
so. And God called the dry land earth; and the 
gathering together of the waters called He seas." 
{Gen. i, 9,10). 

Mark the phrase, unto one place. The oceans and 
seas are all connected; they are only names for 
parts of one place or basin. In the 104th Psalm 
we are told that God covered the earth "With the 
deep as with a garment ; the waters stood above the 
mountains." Concerning the early condition of 
the earth, science declares, that the waters encased 
the whole globe, and were above the early moun- 
tains, which were afterwards formed by the con- 
tortions caused by the shrinking of the crust of 
the earth as it cooled. 

Helmholtz has calculated that the shrinking of 
the earth one ten-thousandth of its diameter would 
generate an amount of heat equal to that which 
the earth receives from the sun during two thou- 
sand years. From this fact we may easily perceive 
the causes of that internal heat which, after the 
lapse of unknown ages, still manifests itself in gey- 
sers, earthquakes and volcanoes. Here, also, we 
may perceive that mighty force by which the 
Divine chemist prepared the materials for the 
earth's ultimate condition. 

When God created light, He pronounced it 
good; when He divided the dry land from the 
waters, He pronounced it good ; but when He cre- 
ated the firmament, or expanse, He did not declare 
it good. Why? Possibly because, until vegeta- 
tion began, it was loaded with carbonic acid and 



180 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

other poisonous gases, and totally unfit to support 
animal life. Science teaches us that this was the 
period when those strata known as the primary 
rocks were formed. No remains of animal life can 
be found in them. It is a well-known fact that 
most substances shrink as they cool. This is the 
principle that holds the tires upon wagon wheels, 
In the same manner the earth also shrank, in pro- 
portion, as it cooled. As the various parts might 
give out heat in an unequal manner, so irregulari- 
ties would appear on its surface, forming the earli- 
est mountain chains, valleys, rents and ravines. 
Gradually as these early mountains and table-lands 
rose above the surface of the primeval ocean, the 
waves would dash against them and the rains fall, 
slowly wearing away the rocks and thus forming 
the earliest soil on the new-made world. 

Continuing our investigations, let us turn to 
another chapter of the book of nature and see how 
closely the teachings of science agree with the 
record given by Moses: "And God said, Let the 
earth bring forth grass" (literally, sproutage), "the 
herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit 
after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the 
earth; and it was so." {Gen. i, 11.) 

Mark the order: First, the sproutage; second, 
seed-bearing herbs; and thirdly, fruit-bearing 
trees. Now what does science say on this subject? 
It tells us that the exact geological period, when 
plants first appeared upon the earth, cannot be told; 
for their delicate structure was such that their earli- 
est forms have been entirely destroyed, unless 



EARLY FORMS OF VEGETATION. 



181 



they are those which are still preserved in the strata 
of the coal measures. The earliest forms of which 
we have any knowledge were flowerless plants, 
which produced minute spores instead of seeds. 
Among these may be classed fungi, mosses and 
ferns. Thus we see how correctly Moses has de- 





FERNS. CALAMITES. 

SPECIMENS OF EARLY VEGETATION. 

scribed the first form of vegetable life by simply 
speaking of it as sproutage, without mentioning 
any seed, 



182 



GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



With regard to this vegetation, it would imply 
the existence of sunlight, though some of the low- 
er orders would require but little. The atmos- 
phere was still dense and loaded with vapor. The 
lower orders of flowerless plants were succeeded by 
tree-like ferns, some of which grew to the enormous 
hight of forty or fifty feet. The careful observer 
will frequently find traces of this early vegetation 




SPECIMEN OP BARK FROM A NOVA SCOTIA COAL MINE. 

in the lumps of common coal. Sometimes the 
galleries of coal mines are overhung with beauti- 
ful proportions of extinct vegetable forms. Thus 
a wise Providence has preserved the remains of 
primeval vegetation for perhaps millions of years, 
to tell us the story of those ancient forests, and 
reveal to us the various steps of creation. "The 
vegetation of the coal period presents a remark- 
able character, being composed almost entirely of 



CLIMATE OF CARBONIFEROUS AGE. 183 

the highest class of flowerless plants, along with a 
few of the lowest class of those that flower." {Daw- 
son's Chain of Life, p. 96.) 

Concerning the climatic condition of the earth 
during the coal-forming, (carboniferous) period, as it 
is called, the description given by Hugh Miller,, 
the eminent geologist, may not be out of place : 
"From the circumstance that no dew is deposited 
in our Summer evenings, save under a clear sky, 
it is now ascertained that even a thin covering of 
cloud — serving as a robe to keep the earth warm — 
prevents the surface heat of the planet from radi- 
ating into the space beyond. And such a cloud, 
thick and continuous, as must have wrapped round 
the earth, as with a mantle, during the earlier geo- 
logic periods, would have served to retard, for 
many ages, the radiation, and consequently the 
reduction, of that internal heat of which it was 
itself a consequence. Nor would a planet, covered 
over for ages with a thick screen of vapor, be a 
novelty yet in the universe. It is doubtful wheth- 
er astronomers have ever yet looked on the face of 
Mercury. It is, at least, very generally held that, 
hitherto, only his clouds have been seen. Even 
Jupiter, though it is thought his mountains have 
been occasionally detected raising their peaks 
through openings in his cloudy atmosphere, is 
known chiefly by the dark, shifting bands that, 
flecking his surface in the line of his trade-winds, 
belong not to his body, but to his thick, dark cov- 
ering. Nor, yet further, would a warm, steaming 
atmosphere, muffled in clouds, have been unfavor- 



184 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

able to a rank, flowerless vegetation like that of the 
coal measures. 

"There are moist, mild, cloudy days of Spring 
and early Summer, that rejoice the heart of the 
farmer, for he knows how conducive they 
are to the young growth on his fields. The 
coal measure climate would have consisted of an 
unbroken series of these, with, mayhap, a little 
more of cloud and moisture and a great deal more 
of heat. The earth would have been a vast green- 
house covered with smoked glass, and a vigorous, 
though, perhaps, a loosely-knit and faintly-colored, 
vegetation would have luxuriated under its shade. 
That the vegetable growth must have been great 
we can easily imagine when we consider the im- 
mense quantities of coal throughout the world. It 
is a remarkable circumstance that, from the equa- 
torial regions up to Melville Island in the Arc- 
tic Ocean, where continual frost now prevails; and 
from Spitzbergen to the center of Africa, the re- 
mains of the plants of the coal measures are 
identically the same. There seems to have been 
then only one climate over the whole globe, caused, 
no doubt, by the internal heat of the earth. We 
should not forget that Moses puts the elevating of 
the land and the production of vegetation in the 
same geological period, viz., between the second 
and third day." 

'"And the evening and the morning were the 
third day." {Gen. i, 13.) Before this time there 
seems to have been no seasons ; but, after that, God 
appointed the sun, moon and stars "to give light 



IDEAL FOREST OF COAL PERIOD. 



85 




186 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

upon the earth, and to be for signs, and for seasons, 
and for days and for years." That the sun and 
stars had been created long before this, we have no 
reason to doubt. We may, therefore, correctly in- 
fer that they were then, for the first time, visible 
from the surface of the earth. 



CHAPTER XII. 



HARMONY OF GENESIS AND GEOLOGY. 



DEVELOPMENT OP SPECIES — SURVIVAL OF THE FIT- 
TEST — LAWS OF VARIATION — GRADUAL EXTINC- 
TION OF ANIMALS — AQUATIC CHARACTER OF 
EARLIEST BIRDS — INDICATIONS OF LIFE IN CHALK 
— PRIMEVAL MONSTERS — HUGE LAND ANIMALS 
— CHANGE IN THE CLIMATE OF THE EARTH — 
CREATION OF MAN— NO INTERMEDIATE LINK. 

Philosophers lay it down as a rule, that the 
materials for all revolutions, whether political, 
moral or social are prepared before-hand. A revo- 
lution in ideas and modes of thought is by no 
means an exception to this rule. The unthinking 
throng may gaze in wonder at the spectacle 
afforded by the sudden outburst; but the thought- 
ful student will trace the order of events, and the 
forces that have been long at work preparing the 
minds of men for the new order of things. 



REVOLUTIONS IN SCIENCE 187 

When in the latter part of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, Voltaire marshaled his arguments as a legion, 
and hurled his burning invectives against the cor- 
ruptions of false Christianity, humanity stood 
aghast at the result, for they did not perceive that 
the forces which impelled it had long been prepar- 
ing. When the works of Voltaire and Thomas 
Paine appeared, society was in such a condition 
that many accepted their teachings as a relief from 
existing evils. Much more, many persons were 
ready to follow them into all the wild sophistries 
of infidelity. 

The history of that time, has been to some 
extent repeated in the great scientific revolution so 
vigorously at work in the nineteenth century. 
When Hugh Miller wrote his "Testimony of the 
Rocks" there were those who confidently expected 
that this work would overturn the Mosaic account 
of the creation ; and a wonderful outcry was raised 
about the opposition between the records of the 
rocks and the Bible. After a time it was found 
that geology demonstrates the existence, wisdom 
and goodness of an Almighty Creator with irre- 
sistible evidence. So when Darwin, Huxley, 
Hooker, Spencer and others revealed to the world, 
a vast amount of knowledge concerning the origin 
of species and the development of plants and ani- 
mals, there were those who would have gladly 
found an antagonism between the facts of science 
and the records of revelation. But now it is 
admitted that it would be equally wonderful, and 
would as much require the infinite powers of 



188 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

Deity, "to develop all the varied and marvelous 
forms of organic life from a single germ as to call 
them into existence by special acts of creation." 
In reality we owe these philosophers a debt of gra- 
titude for having studied nature so carefully and 
given us so many deeply interesting and important 
facts. 

It is evidently part of the divine plan that spe- 
cies should develop from a lower to a higher con- 
dition. We see this in the improvements in the 
breeds of our domestic animals, as well as in the 
wild animals that now live, as compared with the 
remains of the ancient Saurians that once roamed 
over the earth. The doctrine of "Natural Selec- 
tion" or "Survival of the Fittest," as Huxley terms 
it, is also a law of nature. We see this illustrated 
at the present time in the history of races of men 
and species of animals. The weaker races of men 
are gradually disappearing while those nations 
who possess the highest physical, mental and 
moral characteristics are extending their dominion 
over the earth. In the history of animals this is 
likewise apparent. The gigantic, unwieldy ox, 
the Urus of Caesar, has been extinct since Roman 
times. The Auroch, another ox whose bones are 
frequently found in the same strata with extinct 
animals, would have been now entirely extinct but 
for the imperial edict which preserves a few in the 
forest of Lithuania. The gigantic birds Dinornis 
and Aptornis have but recently passed away. Per- 
fect skeletons of them are still preserved in the 
museum of Christchurch, New Zealand. From 



EXTINCT BIRDS. 



189 



the measurement of these skeletons they are 
estimated to have been nearly or quite twelve feet 
high. The Dodo, a heavy, clumsy bird, of fifty 
pounds' weight, with loose, downy feathers, and 




SKELETON OF A MAN AND THAT OF A DINORNIS SHOWING 
COMPARATIVE SIZE. 

imperfect wings like a new-born chicken, became 
extinct only about 150 or 200 years ago. The 



190 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

Apteryx of Australia, which of all living birds 
most resembles some of the extinct species, still 
survives, ready to disappear. The lion, tiger, bison 
(or buffalo), elephant, rhinoceros, and, in fact, all 
the fiercer and larger animals, are even now dis- 
appearing before the advance of civilized man. 

The law of variation, as expressed by Darwin, 
is true with certain limitations. For example, 
every person must admit a vast change in the con- 
dition of the best breeds of our domestic swine, 
from their ancestors, the wild boars of medieval 
Europe. Yet nowhere can be found a single 
instance of transmutation of species. For example, 
if we should trace the pedigree of a horse back- 
wards through a thousand generations we should 
find that the original animal was also a horse, though 
probably a very inferior animal. Of all the living 
animals and fossil remains of extinct ones, though 
thousands of specimens have been discovered, yet 
of land animals and the higher orders of creation 
not a single instance of transmutation can be 
found. In all this we see a beautiful agreement 
with the divine record, "And God said, Let the earth 
bring forth the living creature after his kind, 
cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth 
after his kind: and it was so" {Gen. i, 24). 

True, we are told by Huxley that the embryos 
of different animals closely resemble each other, 
so that at an early stage of their existence they 
cannot be distinguished. But what of this? It 
only shows the unity of design in the works of 
the Creator which is one of the grand character- 



REPTILIAN BIRDS. 191 

istics of the world. Further, it teaches us a lesson 
of man's ignorance and imbecility. With all the 
aid of science we are unable to perceive those 
minute arrangements of atoms which will on 
development produce a tortoise or a fowl, a dog or 
a man. Who will presume to say that a castle was 
developed or "evolved" from a cottage because 
thev were built of similar materials or because 




BIRD-LIKE REPTILE DISCOVERED BY DARWIN. 

some of the rooms were after the same pattern? 
Why then should the Divine Architect's work be 
doubted because He gives to the germs of different 
beings the power of self-development according to 
a specified pattern, which is to end in the ultimate 
perfection of vastly different organisms ? 

But we are asked, is it not true that the most 
accurate and reliable geologists, have discovered 
in the rocky records of former ages the most un- 
deniable evidence that the earliest birds were of a 



192 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



strangely reptilian character, and that many of 
the reptiles of that age were of an extraordinary 
bird-like character? That in some cases it is diffi- 
cult to determine which predominated to the 
greatest extent, the characteristics of the reptile, 
the bat or the bird? These animals w T ere evidently 
amphibious, living either on land or in the sea. 
Some specimens still extant which were found in 
Mexico and South America and which are iden- 
tical with, or closely resemble the extinct species, 
possess the double character of an aquatic and ter- 




REPTILIAN BIRD BY HUXLEY. 

restrial animal. Some of them advance beyond 
the development common to the class, and from 
gill-breathers, fitted, only to inhabit the water, 
become lung-breathers adapted to live on land. 

Is it not also true that the remains of the earli- 
est birds indicate them to have been of an aquatic 
character similar to the cranes, gulls and pelicans 
of the present time? Some of these were desti- 
tute of horn bills which birds of the present age 
possess. On the other hand their heads resembled 
those of reptiles. Neither were their wings always 



AQUATIC 0RIGI1\ OF BIRDS. 19-3 

covered with feathers, but in some cases their 
wings resembled those of the bat, and their feet 
closely resembled those of reptiles. Now, says the 
skeptic, is it not possible that reptiles and birds 
lived upon the earth previous to the creation of 
beasts? And, further, is it not possible that birds 
and reptiles may have been developed from the 
same original type, whereas Moses declares that 
God made the beast of the earth after his 
kind? 

Not so fast, my friend. It is well known that 
these declarations of science are mere speculations, 
plausible indeed, but nowhere proven to be true. 
Granting all that the infidel asks, let us carefully 
read the sacred record and see if there really is 
any contradiction: "And God said, Let the waters 
bring forth abundantly the living creature that 
hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in 
the open firmament of heaven. " {Gen. i, 20). Had 
Moses written, "And God now created every living 
thing that moveth in the waters," there might have 
been some reason for infidel objections. We should 
therefore especially notice that Moses does not say 
that this was the first dawn of animal life upon 
our globe, but simply that the waters were now to 
"bring forth abundantly the moving creature that 
hath life, and fowl," etc. In all this there is no 
inconsistency between the geological and Biblical 
statements. On the other hand the wording of 
the text is such as to lead the student to believe 
that birds were of aquatic origin, that is, liyed on 
the water. 

10* 



194 



GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



In the twenty-first verse we are told that God 
created great whales (literally sea-monsters) "and 
every living creature that moveth, which the 
waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind 
and every winged fowl after his kind." And 
here we also perceive that the waters are again 
represented to be as it were the nursing mother of 




PIECE OF CHALK HIGHLY MAGNIFIED. 

both birds and the lower orders of animal life. 
Mark also that the term "created" is used only 
three times in the whole of this record ; first in 
reference to the creation of the earth, second in 
reference to sea-monsters, and third in reference 
to the creation of man. 



REMAINS OF ANIMAL LIFE, 



195 



While revelation teaches us that the period 
when the waters were to bring forth abundantly, 
w r as in a succeeding epoch to that in which vegeta- 
tion commenced; geology bears testimony that 
there are few remains of animal life till we come 
up to more recently formed strata, than the 
vegetable deposits of the coal measures. It is 
only when we arrive at the chalk measures that 
we find an "abundance" of animal life. Recent 
investigations have shown, that chalk is mostly 
composed of shells in every stage of change, some 
perfect, some broken, and still others decayed 




REMAINS OF SHELL FISH. 

into an impalpable dust. Some of these shells 
are so minute that it would require 1,800 placed 
side by side to measure a single inch. Perhaps 
no human intellect is able to form a conception of 
this profuseness of animal life. Well might 
Moses say the sea brought forth abundantly. 

It is at this epoch that w r e find the first remains 
of shell fish which are so common in the rocks of 
every land; also the remains of innumerable tiny 
fish, so prevalent in certain sections of our own 
land. Again, geology teaches us that "birds made 
their first appearance during this epoch." No 
fragments of the skeletons of birds have yet been 
discovered in formations older than the chalk. 



196 



GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 



Further it is only in strata formed subsequently 
to the chalk that we find the remains of those 
monsters that made the earth to tremble beneath 
their tread and lashed to foam the billows of the 
primeval ocean. To those who are unaccustomed 
to view fossil remains the dimensions of some of 
these seem almost incredible. Just think of mon- 
sters 120 feet in length with teeth eleven inches in 




REMAINS OF MACROUR A— EARLIEST BIRD YET FOUND. 

diameter and eyes whose sockets were more than 
eighteen inches across; and' we can easily perceive 
that the statement of Moses is verified, "And God 
created great whales" (literally sea monsters). Of 
this'epoch, Le Conte says, "It was preeminently an 
age of reptiles." There are now on the whole face 
of the earth only six large reptiles over fifteen feet 
long — two in India, one in Africa, three in Ame- 
rica — and none over twenty-five feet long. Yet in 
the strata that correspond to this period in Great 
Britain alone are found the skeletons of at least 



EXTINC1 REPTILES. 



197 



five great Dinosaurs from twenty to sixty feet 
long, and in the United States the fullness of 
reptilian life was even greater ; for, one hundred 




198 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY, 

and forty-seven species of reptiles have been found, 
most of them of gigantic size. Among these are 
fifty species of Mosasaurs, seventy or eighty feet 
long, also species of crocodiles fifty feet long, 
besides great numbers of gigantic turtles." These 
are some of the remains that are still preserved. 
But the fossil animals of any period are only a 
remnant of the animals of that period. That the 
climate of the earth was then warm and uniform 
is sufficiently attested. All great reptiles are now 
found only in tropical or subtropical regions ; but 
the remains of these monsters are scattered in all 
latitudes from New Zealand to Spitzbergen. In all 
this we see a wonderful agreement between the 
account given by Moses and the records of 
geology. 

Of the land animals which then inhabited the 
earth, might be mentioned the Dinotherium. From 
the remains of it which still exist it must have 
measured not less than sixteen feet high and 
twenty-four feet long with a head at least three 
feet in breadth and hence capable of containing 
a brain large enough for the most exacting phren- 
ologist. Then again there was another huge 
animal called the Mastodon. We may get some 
idea of the enornous size of the animal from the 
fact that the remains of some of its grinding teeth ? 
recently found in Pennsylvania, weighed no less 
than seventeen pounds. There existed at that time 
still another huge animal whose remains are found 
in Siberia, Sweden, Italy and North and Soutli 
America. It is commonly called a Mammoth, 



CHANGE OF THE EARTHS CLIMATE. 199 

though on account of its resemblance to existing 
elephants, naturalists have named it Elephas 
Primigenius. It was covered with three kinds of 
hair : first strong bristles, secondly, soft hair, and 
thirdly with reddish wool growing among the 
hair. 

Geologists agree that during the latter part of 
this period the earth began to assume conditions 
similar to those which prevail at the present time. 
This is indicated by the abundance of deciduous 
plants (that is plants that drop their leaves each 
autumn), w^hich are to be found in North America. 
It is thus evident that the climate was becoming 
cooler, the dense atmosphere which so long had 
wrapped the earth as with a mantle had dissipated; 
the carbonic acid and other poisonous gases, which 
were totally unfit to support animal life had been 
absorbed by the rank vegetation of the coal period. 
Geologists tell us that this was the period when the 
Wasatch and Uintah mountains were formed and 
the center of the western continent upheaved, by 
which the great interior sea which previously 
divided America into two continents was abolished, 
The change of physical geography was enormous 
and the change of climate was doubtless corres- 
pondingly great. It was natural, therefore, to 
expect, with the opening of the next era, a very 
great change both in plant and animal life. So 
ended the fifth epoch of creation, for "The evening 
and the morning were the fifth day." 

Moses opens the record of the sixth epoch by 
the words, "And God said, Let the earth bring 



200 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

forth the living creature, after his kind, cattle, and 
creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his 
kind; and it was so." Geology confirms this by 
declaring, as it were, that then her modern history 
commenced. Then began the present aspect of 
field and forest; and modern types of animals 
were introduced and became predominant. Many 
of the species of both plants and animals were 
identical with those still living. Further, one of 
the most noteworthy facts connected with the first 
mammals (or milk-giving animals), is the sudden- 
ness of their appearance in great numbers, and of 
all, or nearly all orders', even the highest, except 
man. 

Lastly, we are told, "And God said, Let us make 
man in our image, after our likeness; and let 
them have dominion over the fish of the sea and 
over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle and 
over all the earth, and over every creeping thing 
that creepeth upon the earth." {Gen. i. 26). Thus 
from scripture we learn that the closing and 
completing work of the creation was man. 

Geology triumphantly confirms the revealed 
fact that submarine animals, land vegetation, 
reptiles, birds and quadrupeds, were all of them 
in existence, successively and collectively, before 
the first of the human race. Further, that the 
earliest remains of men, yet discovered, indicate 
that they were distinctly and perfectly human, as 
much so as any race now living, and were not in 
any sense an intermediate link between man and 
the ape. When his habitation was prepared, and 



PROOFS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. 201 

the materials of the forest and of the mine were 
all ready for his use, then, and not till then, did 
man appear. Thus the record of Moses, and the 
record of nature bear each other witness. The 
same narrative told by the ruler of Israel four 
thousand years ago, is also told in its own expres- 
sive language by the very earth on which we tread, 
as if it were "graven with an iron pen and lead in 
the rock forever." 



CHAPTER XIII 



SCIENTIFIC PROOFS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. 



TESTIMONY OF THE SCRIPTURES — DOCTRINE OF THE 
SADDUCEES — REMARK OF NAPOLEON — SPIRIT 
CONTROLS MATTER — MICROSCOPIC ATOMS — PRO- 
TOPLASM — ESSENTIAL CONDITIONS OF LIFE — 
INFIDEL THEORIES — WISDOM OF SOCRATES — 
HERBERT SPENCER^ PHILOSOPHY — FACULTIES 
OF THE MIND — CONSCIOUSNESS — PERCEPTION — 
MEMORY-IMAGINATION-JUDGMENT-- CONSCIENCE 
— VOLITION — ABERCROMBIE'S RECORD— TALLEY- 
RAND — MILK POISONING. 

The inspired records uniformly teach that man 
has a spiritual nature distinct from the body, the 
union of which with the body produces that which, 
for want of a better term, we call our present life. 
The union of some of these celestial spirits with 

11 



202 G OSPEL PHIL SOPHY. 

bodies of earthly matter forms the visible world of 
mankind. They teach us, also, that the existence 
and conscious faculties of the soul continue after 
the death of the body. Death is referred to in the 
scriptures as giving up the ghost, or spirit; and 
very many passages refer to the condition of dis- 
embodied spirits after death. In the account of 
the creation of Adam, we read that "The Lord God 
formed man of the dust of the ground, and breath* 
ed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man 
became a living soul," thus making an evident dis- 
tinction between the body and the soul. In var- 
ious parts of the Old Testament we find references 
to disembodied spirits, and various enactments in 
the Mosaic law against consulting them by means 
of divination and necromancy. 

The Sadducees denied the separate existence of 
spirits ; but, in our Savior's famous argument with 
them, He showed that the Old Testament clearly 
taught this doctrine when it represented God as say- 
ing, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, 
and the God of Jacob/' adding, "He is not the God of 
the dead, but the God of the living." (Markxii, 26.) 
Thereby teaching that these persons, although their 
bodies had been long dead, were still living. So, like- 
wise, St. Paul speaks of being absent from the 
body, yet present with the Lord. St. John declares 
that he saw the souls of those who had been slain 
for their testimony of Jesus. (Rev. vi, 9.) 

In examining the scientific evidence of these 
scriptural views concerning a spiritual existence, 
it will be necessary to inquire into the origin of 



REMARK OF NAPOLEON. 203 

life as exhibited in physiology. This is confessedly 
a difficult question, yet one of great importance, 
since, driven from the sciences of astronomy and 
geology, infidelity has sought to entrench itself in 
natural history as in a citadel. Yet, even here, 
the ground crumbles beneath its feet; and the 
time is not far distant when a man, having a scien- 
tific education, will be ashamed to avow himself 
an infidel. 

We have seen that astronomy and geology bear 
testimony to the truths revealed in the scriptures; 
so, likewise, does the science which treats of the 
functions of living beings. 

Napoleon is said to have remarked to Dr. Anto- 
marchi, at St. Helena, "You physicians are unbe- 
lievers because you cannot find the soul with your 
dissecting knife." However applicable this might 
have been to physicians of that day, it would fail 
of application now, since, by means of the micro- 
scope, man has been able to penetrate still more 
deeply into the recesses of nature's mysteries. With 
this instrument, science has been able to detect the 
beginnings of living structure, and to trace the 
fundamental laws of the process of development. 

Chemistry has also done its part in investigat- 
ing this phenomena. From these sources w^e learn 
the mutual relation, as well as individuality of all 
organic things. From the inorganic world, directly 
or indirectly, the bodies of all living things orig- 
inate, and to it, naturally, they all return. By 
some power, unseen to mortal eyes, matter is ar- 
ranged in new forms; and these forms, after using 



204 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

the matter thus arranged, restore it again to the 
physical world. In this manner is kept up the 
wonderful circle of organic life. Scientists, though 
skeptically inclined, agree that there must have 
first existed an animated germ, the product of a 
previously-existing organism, which draws in and 
appropriates the inorganic elements, combines these 
elements into organisms, builds up an organized 
fabric, and discards, finally, the atoms and imple- 
ments which it can no longer use. What this or- 
ganism is we cannot fully explain, since it is evi- 
dent that it is of such a refined or sublimated na- 
ture as to elude the grasp of science in its present 
stage of development. By no means, at our dis- 
posal, are we capable of rigidly examining it by 
our bodily senses. 

To illustrate this subject, and at the same time 
to show the superiority and independence of the 
"vital principle," as it is called, or organizing 
spirit, to the cruder matter it uses, let us consider 
the history of a single microscopic atom, as it is 
used in the service of life. By some means — 
understood only by the Creator — it has become 
mysteriously endowed with life. Let us suppose 
its first connection with vitality to be in the 
simplest form of animated matter — that of the 
protoplasm. We find, on examination, that this 
protoplasm possesses what scientists call the 
"essential conditions of life," namely sensibility, 
contractibility and assimilation. We find that 
this atom of living jelly — for such it really is — is 
endowed with the power of selecting nutriment 



ESSENTIAL CONDITIONS OF LIFE. 205 

from the inorganic matter around it for the support 
of its own existence. After a time it forms itself 
into a simple cell, a bladder-like form inclosing a 
fluid substance, and containing a few moving 
granules. After a time, this cell multiplies itself, 
that is, gives birth to a number of cells like itself. 
These are inclosed in the original cell, which at 
last bursts and sets them free. All scientists agree 
that "protoplasm is the physical basis of life." 
Now whence comes this wonderful principle which 
endows the protoplasm with the "essential condi- 
tions of .life," and presses into its service the atoms 
and the laws of the material universe? Its effects 
are too palpable to allow a denial of its existence, 
while its power over earthly matter proves that it 
is distinct from it. Although too subtle to be 
analyzed by the philosopher, its existence is sugges- 
tive of the highest truths. It speaks to us of a 
spiritual world — a world to which the visible world 
is subservient, and which is itself unaffected by 
the many changes which take place around us. 

Among the many theories which infidels have 
profounded, one of the most common is that which 
declares that life is the result of organization. 
This argument, like many others, is only an old 
one with a modern dress. We find in Plato's "Phsedo," 
that when Simmias argued against the immortality 
of the soul, the wise and good Socrates opposed 
him, proving that the soul existed before the body, 
as shown by the fact of pre-existent ideas. For 
example, the idea of goodness must necessarily 
exist, before we are able to form an opinion con- 



206 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

cerning goodness. Infidels tell us that the idea of 
virtue is merely the harmony of the soul ; but if 
the soul itself is only the "harmonious result of 
organization," then virtue is simply the harmony 
of a harmony, which is absurd. Socrates further 
showed that parts of the soul may be opposed to 
each other, as desire and reason, for example; and 
this fact overthrows the idea of harmony. Thus 
even a pagan philosopher could deal fatal blows 
against the positivism of his age as well as against 
the pretended wisdom of the nineteenth century. 

Some tell that "no idea or feeling can arise, save 
as the result of some physical force expended in 
producing it." That because light, heat, electricity 
and motion are closely related, therefore they are 
the cause of life. As well might we say that the 
art and skill observed in a beautiful building 
were the offspring of the house itself, or that the 
architect was the result of a beautiful suite of 
rooms. In other words, the relation of cause and 
effect are completely reversed. 

Yet we are told that heat, motion, electricity 
and chemical affinity are the causes of mental 
and moral action. This principle is even applied 
to the progress of civilization, and the statistics of 
crime; and Mr Herbert Spencer has made it the 
foundation of his new system of philosophy. 
Stripped of its parade and tinsel, however, this 
theory is nothing but the old pantheism revived. 
It is the desperate effort of infidelity to press 
into its service the researches of modern physiol- 
ogy and anatomy, as has formerly been tried with 



FACULTIES OF THE MIND. 207 

astronomy and geology ; but each of these sciences 
refuses an alliance with skepticism, and incontro- 
vertibly points to a Creator and a spiritual world. 

Let the honest skeptic inquire, "How do these 
theories explain the cause of life? Do they show 
us a single reason why some parts of matter be- 
come organized and others do not? Do they make 
plain why one cell develops a vegetable and anoth- 
er an animal, no perceptible difference existing 
between them, and the circumstances of each being 
the same except originating from different parent- 
age? Can these philosophers tell us what they 
mean by physical force? Is it matter; or is it a 
creative power, or energy added to matter?'' 

An answer to these questions would cut the Gor- 
dian knot. While science stands on the very con- 
fines of a spiritual world, and points across the 
boundary, why should we fear to look in that direc- 
tion, or spurn the guidance of that faith which 
would lead us to higher truths. 

It may not be out of place to mention a few of 
the leading faculties of the mind, to show its inde- 
pendence. 

Consciousness , that is, the knowledge which the 
mind has of its own operations. Perception, on the 
evidence we have of external objects by our senses. 
Memory , which implies a former conscious exper- 
ience, its retention, revival and recognition. Im- 
agination is a term used to represent the power 
which the mind has of combining ideas previously 
received. In its highest degree, imagination rises 
to the sphere of creative fancy, or poetic power. 



208 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

Judgment is the decision of the mind, the result of 
comparing two or more ideas. Conscience, some- 
times called the moral sense, is that faculty by 
which we have ideas of right and wrong respecting 
actions, and corresponding feelings of approbation 
or disapprobation. It might, also, be claimed the 
faith faculty. It brings us into relation with the 
spiritual world and the claims of God and duty. 
Volition, or choice, is the dominion exercised b} r 
the mind over itself, employing or withholding its 
faculties in any particular action. These are a few 
of the faculties which link the mind to the body 
and likewise show its independence. 

Thus far we have only considered the origin of 
life, as confirmatory of man's spiritual nature. 
There are, however, other themes which point as 
clearly to the same truth. The functions of the 
nervous system — sensation and voluntary motion 
— cannot be explained by any other theory. The 
nerve-structure only implies a capability of recep- 
tion and transmission. In other words, it is the 
telegraph system that conveys intelligence to, and 
transmits the wishes of the immortal soul. It is 
true that the active exertions of the power of the 
soul require a corresponding health in the bodily 
organs, since the most accomplished artisan cannot 
exhibit his full powers with imperfect tools and 
materials; yet, as the injury or destruction of the 
implement is no proof of the death of the artisan, 
so the injury or destruction of the body destroys 
not the soul. 

There is no constant relation between the integ- 



INBEPENDEhCE OF THE MIND. 209 

rity of mind and body. The mind is sometimes 
an agonizing sufferer, while the body is in perfect 
health; and only slowly, and by degrees, the mind 
brings the bodily organs into a sympathetic state. 
Though the body cannot long resist the influence 
of mental disease; yet the mind can effectually 
resist the depressing influence of bodily disease or 
bodily pain, even to the period of their separation. 
Paralysis has unnerved and unstrung the whole 
system and yet the mind has remained uninjured. 
Such was the case with the great French states- 
man, Talleyrand, who, with a body like a living 
tomb, retained his faculties unimpaired. Nor need 
we more than allude to the rejoicing moment of 
the dying saint, or the triumphs of the martyr at 
the stake, to show that the mind can continue in 
calm serenity, while the body is enduring the most 
excruciating torments, or losing at once its vitality 
and power. Joy causes a brilliancy of the eyes. 
Melancholy produces a directly opposite effect 
from joy. The emotion of anger urges the 
circulation of the blood to the utmost vehem- 
ence, sometimes producing tremors or spas- 
modic action of the muscles. It acts also 
upon the secretions — the saliva, milk and bile — 
which often become actually poisoned. The sick- 
ness and death of many children are caused by 
taking the milk of an enraged mother. 

The independent action of the mind is also 
manifest in the phenomenon of sleep. That per- 
sonality is not suspended, is proved by voluntary 
waking at a predetermined hour. 



210 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

Dreaming is another proof of mental activity 
and independence. Then the mind is withdrawn 
from the ordinary influences of the world around, 
and lives, as it were, in a world of its own. Hence 
the adaptability of the dream state to spiritual 
communication and inspiration, as referred to so 
often in the scriptures. In examining, thus, a few 
particulars in which the bodily organization is 
acted upon by its spiritual inhabitant, we find 
abundant proof of the independent nature of the 
soul, as. taught in holy writ. 



♦~^ 



CHAPTER XIV 



FAITH AND INFIDELITY CONTRASTED. 



FAITH AND SCIENCE HARMONIOUS — GREAT MEN, 
BELIEVERS — THE SAFETY OF SOCIETY DEMANDS 
RELIGION — THE GOSPEL THE BASIS OF TRUE 
CIVILIZATION — WHO ARE THE CREDULOUS — 
CONCLUSION. 

We repeat it : there is no antagonism between 
philosophy and faith. Whatever the seeming 
oppositions of the present, all in the end will be 
perfect harmony. The gospel not merely over- 
whelms but comprehends all philosophy. 

The star of science shines very beautifully 
indeed in its own sphere; but its light at best is a 



FAITH AND INFIDELITY. 211 

borrowed light, and its beams grow pale and 
vanish before the glorious sun of righteous- 
ness. 

Often as the comparison has been made the 
resuk has been uniform — the sun outshines the 
star. Astronomy tried it. When the old Ptole- 
maic system was exploded by Copernicus, the 
vaunted wisdom of men proclaimed that the Bible 
also was exploded. But the Star-Maker triumphed 
over the star-gazers. 

The gospel may indeed be likened to a spendid 
palace which the Great Builder founded on a rock, 
digging deep and -bolting it to the solid granite ; 
and false religion to a building of fair appear- 
ance, but founded upon the sand, which, when 
the floods come and storms beat, falls into irre- 
trievable ruin. False religion cannot endure 
investigation ; but the gospel, though tried 
by the severest tests that science can devise, 
only reveals more fully its beauty and solid- 
ity. Instead of astronomy undermining the 
temple of gospel truth, it has led the greatest of 
astronomers to units with Herschel in the exclama- 
tion, "The infidel astronomer is mad." 

Geology tried it. She came forth boasting her dis- 
coveries, and declaring that she had been among the 
rocks and deep down in the caves of the earth, and 
that she had found the teachings of the Bible con- 
tradicted by the strata of pre-Adamic ages, and had 
read its epitaph deeply chiseled by Nature herself in 
everlasting stone. But now the geologists admit that 
we have no rule for the measurement of geologic time. 



212 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

The fact is, we are not so far out of the dust, and 
chaos, and barbarism of antiquity as we had sup- 
posed. Geologically speaking, the very beginnings 
of our race are still almost in sight. The most 
eminent geologists admit that the total age of our 
race is not of necessity greater than indicated by 
the Mosaic history of primeval times. 

Anatomy also tried it. By all the appliances of 
modern science every bone, muscle and tissue of the 
human body has been examined ; yet no one has 
discovered the secret springs of action of the 
human soul. The power of vision, the source of 
muscular action, the fountain of life, have all 
eluded the skill of man. These mysteries belong 
to Him whose goings forth are from everlasting, 
and whose ways are past finding out. Man with 
all his learning and skill cannot solve the problem 
of his own being. 

And so with all other sciences. Many a wild 
hurricane has spent its force on this tree of life, 
but has only caused it to strike its roots deeper. 
The day is hastening when men of science will be 
the very first to recognize thS authority of God. 
Already it is largely so. What infidel names can 
be placed over against Raphael, Reynolds, Rubens, 
Trumbull, West and Cole as painters, or what 
against Canova or Thorwaldsen in sculpture, or 
Christopher Wren in architecture, or Michael Angelo 
in all three? In poetry, Milton, Young, Shake- 
speare, Dryden, Pope, Montgomery, Cowper, Watts, 
Wesley, Scott, Beattie, Goldsmith, Wordsworth, 
Tennyson, Bryant, Longfellow, Whittier, Hemans, 



GREAT MEN, BELIEVERS. 213 



the Careys and hundreds of others who were all 
believers in inspiration. As if religion only was 
entitled to sing, infidelity has never produced a 
Handel, a Haydn, a Mozart, a Beethoven or a 
Spohr. Where can infidelity find such a galaxy 
of peerless judges as Grotius, Selden, Blackstone, 
Hale, Mansfield, Wirt, Story, Kent and Freling- 
huysen. Among physicians, none can outrank 
Harvey, Sydenham, Boerhave, Gregory, Goode, 
Cooper and Rush; yet these all reverenced the 
name of God. Infidel philosophy can boast no 
names like Bacon, Newton, Locke, Stewart, Davy, 
Herschel, Cuvier, Whately, Hamilton, Proctor, 
Winchell or Le Conte. Jesus was in His appro- 
priate place when among the doctors; and the wise 
men of the east were never wiser than when they 
brought their royal gifts to Him. 

If the Being who made man has not had consi- 
deration enough for him to reveal to him His will, 
then he is not of the slightest consequence. These 
horrible wars which drown nations in sorrow, are 
the mere squabbles of a crowd of insects too insig- 
nificant for the divine notice. These dreams of 
moral purity, these aspirations after a higher life, 
these hopes of immortality, these out-reachings 
toward the everlasting Father, the assumption that 
we have a nature higher than the horse we drive 
or the dog we caress, are all miserable mis- 
takes. If there is no authoritative revelation 
from God, what better are we than the brute 
creation? When we have set revelation aside 
and renounced our hope of immortality and 



214 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

thrown off all our moral and religious obligations, 
and relinquished the leadership of the Savior, 
what shall we do for a restraining power to keep 
society together at all ? 

If men should be convinced that they are only 
animals, and that God takes no notice of them, 
whose property would be safe? Whose life would 
be sacred? Who would be secure from the unre- 
strained ravages of every base passion that finds 
its home in the human heart? When Christ, as a 
Divine Being, or as a man divinely commissioned, 
dies out of the popular faith, what then ? Who shall 
comfort the hearts that mourn? Who shall assure us 
that virtue has a reward, or that there is any such 
thing as virtue? Who shall stimulate the love of 
brotherhood, and move men to works of benevo- 
lence? Who then would strive to raise the world 
but of its beastly degradation? 

No candid observer will deny that whatever of 

good there is in our civilization is the product of 

the gospel. The very government under which 

we live was organized and established by men who 

were the instruments of God. 

That which gives us protection by day and night 

— the dwellings we live in, the clothes we wear, the 
institutions of mental, social and moral culture — 
all these ar§ the direct results of the revelations of 
God. A faith in God is the very fountain head of 
everything that is desirable in our civilization, 
and this civilization is the flower of time. Hu- 
manity has reached its noblest thrift, its high- 
water mark, its loftiest flight of excellence through 
the influence of this faith. 



WHO ARE THE CREDULOUS? 215 

And now we are told by infidels, in the most 
complacent language that the gospel is a myth, 
and that the Old Testament, which holds a rela- 
tion to the New Testament and all other divine 
records as the blade holds to the ear, the bud to 
the flower, is a huge batch of absurdities with no 
valid claim to our respectful faith. We are told 
in effect that out of an ingenious lie, out of a cun- 
ning delusion, out of a baseless myth, out of a sys- 
tematized falsehood has sprung all that there is in 
this life worth living for — the grandest motive of 
human progress in purity and power! We are, in 
effect, told that by means of a stupendous cheat, 
men are trained to goodness, purified of their pas- 
sions, filled with love to one another, prompted to 
the highest heroism, inspired to sacrifices of life 
and fortune for the public good, and are built up 
into a civilization which is immeasurably superior 
to all that human nature, assisted merely by 
human reason and false religion, ever dreamed of ! 

We are, in effect, told all this; and we now ask 
reasonable men w^hat they think of it. Who are 
the credulous men — those who believe in a divine 
power and personage, out of whose life has flown 
into humanity those pure principles and elevating 
and purifying motives — or those who believe that 
a lie has wrought those marvels? 

Of all the credulous idiots that the age has pro- 
duced, we know of none so pitiable as those who, 
in the full blaze of such a civilization as ours, soberly 
talk of the gospel as a myth and its Author as a 
cheat. 



216 GOSPEL PHILOSOPHY. 

CONCLUSION. 

And now, dear reader, if you have diligently 
read the preceding pages, you can understand how 
carefully the various objections to our religion have 
been examined and how thoroughly answered. 
During the last twenty-five years human intellect 
has made advances which have astonished even 
students of science. Scientific positions which 
were deemed impregnable a generation ago, have 
been swept away by a storm of new ideas; and the 
sunshine of examination has melted many an ice- 
berg of prejudice, and dissipated many an intel- 
lectual fog. True it is that in advance of us are 
"Banks of cloud darkly bounding the horizon, and 
loftier Alps of thought which remain to be scaled." 
Yet Faith penetrates the vail and sees the glorious 
land of promise — the inheritance of our race. 
Even to those who have not faith, the victories of 
God's truth over the vagaries of men is an earnest 
of future triumph. When men shall understand 
what is the true gospel and what is true science 
then will come not conflict, but the peace of mutual 
recognition and mutual understanding. Oh, let 
us be calm, and wait reverently for God to vindi- 
cate His own everlasting truth. 

"It breaks— it comes— the misty shadows fly ; 
A rosy radiance gleams upon the sky ; 
The mountain tops reflect it calm and clear, 
The plain is yet in shade but day is near. 



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